


Earth Twenty-Four

by brinshannara



Series: 52 Times Alex and Maggie Met [4]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Earth, F/F, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-15 13:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 45,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16933710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brinshannara/pseuds/brinshannara
Summary: What if Alex met a gorgeous woman named Margarita while the two of them were on theSurvivortelevision show, competing against one another for a million dollars?





	1. Days 1-7

**Author's Note:**

> It all started with a [tweet on July 3rd](https://twitter.com/chrissy_cataldo/status/1014153378585292801) that sparked my imagination. And now, five months later, here we are, with a 45k beast of a story -- a full _Survivor_ season starring Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer.
> 
> This is the exception to the rule for my 52 Times series and it will be split into four chapters, for easier reading. I'll publish one chapter every day. It's all written, it's just long.
> 
> Finally, comments and kudos remind me that, though I write primarily for myself, others do appreciate it when I put my stuff out there. Thanks for reading. :)

_ Day 1 _

Alex Danvers forced herself to breathe as gazed out over the waves of the South Pacific from her spot on the starboard side of the barge.  _ I’m here _ , she thought to herself,  _ I can’t believe I’m actually here, in Fiji, about to be on  _ Survivor _ of all things. _ She’d submitted her application on a dare from her best friend, Vicki, who had tried out annually for the last three years. So she’d filmed a silly video and sent it in and the next thing she knew, she was packing her bags for Fiji. It had happened in the span of a couple of months and she knew absolutely nothing about what to expect. Alex and the other contestants had been separated from one another at Ponderosa, as it was called, and the only hints she had were what everyone was wearing. Alex had been instructed to bring purple, blue and orange clothing with her and, that morning, she’d been told to dress in blue. She’d been thankful it hadn’t been orange. So she was wearing khaki pants, a long-sleeved blue t-shirt and had a blue hoodie sweatshirt tied around her waist.

The interesting part, of course, had been when she’d seen who else had been instructed to wear blue. There were two other women and three men who were all wearing blue, so Alex presumed that they’d all be on the same team. One of the girls was a tiny thing. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall and she didn’t weigh more than maybe 110 pounds, she surmised. The other woman was taller, of an average build, with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was smiling hugely as they approached the island that was, no doubt, their final destination.

The men in blue varied. There was the stereotypical nerd, who was likely cast in the mold of John Cochran, though possibly less pale than his predecessor. Another was overweight, though Alex didn’t miss the fact that his eyes were taking in absolutely everything, every detail, about all the others on the boat. The last person in blue, wearing cargo shorts and a t-shirt, had muscles clearly moving beneath his light brown skin. While he didn’t live in the gym, Alex guessed, he probably went regularly.

She looked over at the purple group. Everyone looked huge and buff. Two of the men had bulging muscles and one was just built like brick wall — tall and wide. One of the women was clearly some kind of an athlete, judging by some of her tattoos. The other two were in great shape as well. Alex let her gaze linger a bit on one of the women, who had long, light brown hair, braided halfway down her back. She was cute, Alex acknowledged, but, even if the other woman was also into girls, the easiest way to lose  _ Survivor _ was to hook up with someone and be perceived as a “power couple”. It had happened too often and Alex wasn’t going to let herself be distracted by a cute girl.

Finally, Alex looked over the orange group. As a whole, they were absolutely gorgeous. The men were tall, fit, strong and well-groomed, the women fitting the stereotypical ideal of beauty by North American standards — slender, yet curvy. It was looking over this third group that solidified what Alex had guessed — this had to be a Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty theme. She found her eyes drawn to one of the women dressed in orange, wearing a t-shirt that said “Hello Sunshine” on it, with a sun rising from the horizon above the words. She had that very t-shirt. She smiled and looked up to see the beautiful dark-haired woman looking at her, with an eyebrow raised. Any form of communication was strictly forbidden between the contestants at this stage, so as much as Alex wanted to say “I like your shirt”, she just shrugged and looked away.

She looked over her tribe again and nodded to herself. Clearly, she was on the Brains tribe. Immunity challenges might be difficult, particularly if they were especially physical to begin with, though it seemed to her, at first glance, that her tribe consisted of people in their 20s and 30s while she did spot a couple of older folks on the other tribes. Maybe that would be an advantage for them, especially as with three teams, typically second-place was sufficient to keep from going to Tribal Council and having to vote out one of their own members. However, if there was one thing she’d learned from past seasons of  _ Survivor _ , particularly the past ones with this theme, it was not to judge a book by its cover. She knew, for example, that she could easily have been placed on the Brawn tribe, as she was trained to be an FBI field agent and spent four evenings a week kickboxing, even though she spent much of her time at work in her lab. There were likely many others in her position, who could have been on one team or another.

A noise got her attention and she realized that the anchor was being dropped. It was almost go-time. All across the boat were supplies. As someone who’d watched more than her fair share of  _ Survivor _ , Alex knew three things were about to happen. First, they’d be introduced to the game by the host, Jeff Probst. Second, they’d be given some ridiculously short period of time to harvest as much as they could carry and would either be given a raft or some other kind of crude boat to get to their camp. Lastly, there was almost certainly some kind of secret advantage that was hidden amongst the supplies, likely in a tied-up sack or in a jar somewhere. She made a mental note to herself to offer to do inventory when they were at camp, in the hopes of discovering a secret note, advantage or even an immunity idol.

Jeff Probst — Alex had to withhold a squeal as he walked past her — stepped up on to a large storage container at the front of the barge. He put his hands on his hips and smiled, nodding to the groups. “Welcome to Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty 3,” he declared.

All eighteen of them cheered and clapped loudly. It was almost game time.

“You’ve been separated into three teams of six,” he called out. “On the Viribus Tribe, wearing purple, we have Joe, Brandon, Peter, Aishe, Liz and Roxanne. On the Forma Tribe, wearing orange, we have Nicole, Holly, Margarita, Noah, Lincoln and Gabe. Finally, on the Solert Tribe, wearing blue, we have Francis, Ryan, Matteo, Alex, Emi and Becky. Welcome to you all,” he said, warmly. “Viribus, here’s your map to your camp,” he said, picking up a small tube and tossing it to the purple group, where the cute girl Alex had noticed before caught it. “Forma, for you,” he said, throwing out theirs. “And Solert, this is yours.” He threw it and one of Alex’s tribemates, the pale one who reminded her of Cochran, tried to catch it, but it fell from his hands on to the floor.

“Oops,” he said, blushing red. He picked it up and held on to it tightly.

“Survivors, you’ll have three minutes to grab as many supplies as you can. After three minutes, that’s it, nothing else, you’re on your own.”

He nodded to the barge’s crew and three members undid some fasteners and, with loud splashes, three rafts — one to each side and one at the bow of the ship — fell into the water. “Viribus, you get the one off the bow, Forma, you get the one on port side and Solert, you’re on the starboard side. Everyone clear?”

All eighteen of them nodded.

“Good,” he said, raising his left arm. Alex realized he was about to start the challenge and tensed herself. “Survivors ready!” he bellowed. Then he dropped his left arm and brought his right arm up. “Go!”

It was absolute chaos and pandemonium. Alex didn’t even register what her teammates were grabbing, she was just focused on getting staples like rice and beans, as well as a fishing kit she’d seen earlier on. She’d thrown three bags of food over the starboard side and reached for the fishing kit but another pair of hands grabbed it first.

“Hey!” Alex shouted.

“All’s fair in love, war and  _ Survivor _ ,” an orange-dressed man said.

She scowled and grabbed a huge bunch of bananas, throwing it off the boat’s side with ease, despite it weighing probably about 70 or so pounds. She was shoved aside by several people as she went for a machete, but was victorious in that challenge. She carefully dropped it on to the raft from above. She looked around, trying to avoid all the frantic people and just find something, anything, of use. There was another burlap sack in the corner, but she didn’t have time to check it, so she just grabbed it and tossed it overboard, too.

“Thirty seconds left!” Jeff called out. Alex whipped around to look at him. He was definitely enjoying this.

She spotted a smallish wooden crate on the port-side of the barge and went for it, wondering if maybe it would include a tarp or maybe some tools. She hip-checked one of the Forma women on her way, who grunted as she got pushed to the side of the boat. Alex grabbed the crate and lifted it to her chest. She glanced at the woman as she came back to the other side, realizing she was being glared at. “Sorry, Sunshine,” she shrugged, and, with that, she tossed the crate overboard and leapt over the edge herself. Her teammates followed her in, some still holding supplies. They all clambered onto the raft and secured their supplies as best they could.

“That’s it, time!” shouted Jeff from the boat. “If you’re still on the boat, drop anything in your hands and jump.”

Alex looked up and heard a clatter and some choice words from one of the orange men, who then, presumably, jumped off the ship on the port side.

“Your camps are approximately equal distances from here. Better get started,” Jeff advised. “See you at your first challenge.”

With that, Alex nodded to herself and looked around the raft. She was at the rear, with Matteo, she thought his name was. The paddles were behind them, attached to the stern with ropes so she and Matteo unknotted them and began handing them out to the others.

“Who’s got the map?” asked the blonde, Becky.

“I do,” said the skinny guy who reminded Alex of Cochran. “I’m Francis, by the way.”

“Becky,” she smiled.

“I’m Matteo,” the guy to Alex’s right confirmed.

“Alex,” she said.

“Emi,” called out the smallest of them all, sitting up front with Francis.

“Ryan,” said the heavyset guy sitting in front of Alex, behind Emi.

“All right, guys,” Matteo said, cheerfully, “let’s figure out where to go, shall we? Francis? Think you can navigate us there?”

“Sure,” he nodded, pulling the map out of its tube. “Looks like…” He looked up at the island ahead of them, then looked up towards the sun. “We want to head north, so we want to go right. We’ll be…” He squinted at the map. “I think our beach is going to be on the third island, on the far north shore.”

Alex nodded. “All right, Francis, thanks,” she said. “Everyone know how to paddle? You put your higher hand, the one on the inside of the raft, on top of the paddle, then your lower hand, the one on the outside, near the base of the paddle.” She demonstrated and pulled her paddle through the water easily. She looked up and found everyone looking at her. “Uh,” she cleared her throat, “it’s, uh, just something that really annoys me about the show. No one knows how to paddle. Drives me crazy,” she chuckled. “Sorry.”

Becky smiled back at her. “Thanks for the tip, Alex.”

Francis nodded and so did Ryan. “Never been on a boat or canoe or anything like this before,” Ryan admitted. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” she said.

“Let’s get going,” suggested Matteo. “Looks like it’s going to be a bit of a slog.”

As they started paddling away from the barge, they were able to see the Brawn team heading south, while the Beauty team was still hidden from their view by the barge.

 

***

 

It took at least three hours, by Alex’s best guess, for them to get to their beach. They were welcomed by a flag, proudly displaying the logo for the season and the tribe name, Solert, prominently showing. Of course, there were also a number of camera people. They’d been briefed by the producers that they should completely ignore any and all crew members, but Alex knew it’d take her a little while to adjust.

They pulled the raft ashore, bringing it far up the beach, beyond where the tide line was, lest their raft get carried away in the night. Exhausted, they did what they could to bring all the supplies to a shady spot under some palms.

Matteo dropped the bananas unceremoniously by a tree and sat down, stretching out his legs in front of him, resting his back on the tree trunk. “Welcome home, Solert,” he smiled.

“So, what should we do first?” asked Emi. “Anyone want to come with me to find water?”

“I’ll go,” said Ryan.

“Anyone else?”

Matteo considered. “I’m going to see what we can do in terms of shelter stuff, I think.”

“Okay, we’ll be back soon,” Emi said, pulling half of the provided canteens from their spot on a branch and handing them to Ryan before looping the others around her shoulder.

“Alex, you want to help me figure out what we’re doing here?” asked Matteo.

She smiled. “I was thinking I’d just go through and do a quick inventory first, actually, if you don’t mind.” She immediately second-guessed herself.  _ You’re on  _ Survivor _ , Danvers, _ she thought to herself.  _ You’re going to need to be social. And not in terms of just telling people what to do. _

“I’ll help you out, Matteo,” Francis said, perhaps just a tad too eagerly.

He nodded. “Cool. C’mon, I think I saw some loose palm fronds down this way.”

Becky looked over at Alex. “Guess we’re inventory buddies?”

She laughed. “Guess so. Do you know what you grabbed?”

Becky shook her head. “Not a clue. I just tossed everything I could grab.”

Alex nodded in agreement. “Yeah, me too. I did get a machete, the bananas, but I’m not sure what else.”

“I hope we got a fishing kit in here somewhere,” she muttered.

“Ugh, I think one of the big dudes on Brawn stole that from me.”

“Blah.”

“Right?”

Becky smiled at her and then looked around. “So, you seem cool.”

“And you do too,” Alex agreed, amiably.

“Alliance?”

Alex laughed. “It’s been like ten minutes!”

“Ten minutes and three hours on the raft,” Becky corrected her, with a grin.

She laughed. “All right, sure, why not?” She stuck out her hand and Becky shook it.

It was starting. Alex couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She was  _ here _ .

 

***

 

_ Day 2 _

They hadn’t gotten much more than a basic lean-to built before nightfall, nor had they made fire yet, despite trying to use Emi’s glasses to focus the sun on some coconut husk and kindling, so the night was long and it was cold. Alex was relieved when the sky started to brighten in the pre-dawn hours, so she wouldn’t feel obliged to just lay there, amongst the others, ostensibly trying to sleep. She slipped out from the lean-to and took a long drink from her canteen. What did the day ahead hold for her, she wondered, gazing east towards the horizon.

The day brought with it a challenge. Alex quickly learned that they never knew beforehand whether it would be a reward challenge or an immunity challenge. From what she and the others had gathered from their research as fans, it was rare that immunity challenges took place on a day when Tribal Council wasn’t scheduled.

The hike was a pain. They were instructed to leave their designated beach area and make their way south and west to a smaller island in their cluster. Thankfully, the island was so close to theirs that, at this time of day, the water was low enough for them to wade through. Still, it was tiring, sloshing through the water that came up past their knees. Alex wondered how, without food, without sleep, any of them would be able to perform in the challenge.

The tribe was asked by the crew to wait around the bend for Jeff’s signal, which came a few minutes later.

“Come on in, guys!” he shouted.

Simultaneously, all three tribes made their way toward Jeff and the challenge field. And what a challenge it promised to be. There were three floating platforms out in the water, each colour-coded for the tribes, then there were some buoys in the water. Clearly, they’d have to swim and dive for something. Then, on land, there was a mat for each tribe, so Alex guessed that’s where something would need to be dropped. However, the craziest thing was a large, wooden construction for each of the tribes. It was all built in wooden sticks, and had some platforms and some rope and… Alex wasn’t even really sure what it could be called, but she wagered it was a kind of maze. And, at the far end of the beach, it looked like there were some tables. No doubt a puzzle. She nodded, satisfied with her assessment of the situation. She was glad she’d stripped down to her boyshorts and bra, with her hoodie to keep her covered. She’d suspected most challenges would have some sort of water element to them.

“Welcome to your first reward challenge,” Jeff said. “Today, your tribe will be split up into three teams of two. Two people from each tribe will start on the floating platforms in the water. There are four buoys in the water, marking the locations of four keys. Untie the keys, get to the mat. You’ll go one at a time and each person has to get at least one key.”

Alex’s mind was already racing. Maybe she and Matteo would be good for this. “How’s your swimming?” she murmured.

“It’s good,” he replied.

She nodded as Jeff continued.

“Then, the next portion of the challenge has two people in the jungle gym. One person goes high, one person goes low. Each will have a key to retrieve. Once they have successfully retrieved the keys, the third part begins. Your last two people will be starting at the far table,” Jeff said, pointing, “and on my signal, one of them will need to run all the way back to the mat to collect the four keys from the swimmers, while the other will need to collect the keys from the climbers at their exit mat. When all six members are back at the mat by the table, you can start unlocking the six containers and pull out the eighteen puzzle pieces. The first tribe to correctly assemble their word puzzle wins reward.” He looked back at them with a grin. “Wanna know what you’re playing for?”

The group collectively nodded.

“The first team to assemble the puzzle gets fire, in the form of flint, as well as a tarp,” he said, revealing the bundle that had been covered on a nearby table. Cheers went up from all three tribes.

“Since we have three teams, the second team to assemble the puzzle also gets flint. And the third team gets nothing.” He put his hands on his hips. “I’ll give you a few minutes to strategize and then we’ll get started.”

Emi spoke up. “I can climb the jungle gym.”

Matteo nodded. “I can swim. Alex?”

“I’ll swim.”

“I can do the lower jungle gym,” Becky chimed in.

“Francis, Ryan, how are you guys at puzzles?” asked Matteo.

Ryan smiled. “My specialty.”

Alex laughed. “Perfect. Looks like we’re all set.” She turned to Matteo. “Want to grab two keys each or what?”

He shrugged. “How comfortable are you in the water?”

“I grew up surfing.”

“… damn,” he laughed. “Yeah, two each sounds good. Who goes first?”

She shrugged. “I’ll go, if you want.”

“Okay.”

Finally, they were all spread out amongst their stations, with Alex and Matteo swimming out to the platform together. They were up against two men for the other tribes. Alex felt a tiny bit self-conscious that she was being filmed for something that would air on national television just in her underwear and bra, but it was the gazes from the men on the other tribes that really made her feel ill at ease. She shrugged to herself and decided that, simply put, she’d kick their asses in this challenge.

“Okay, for the Brains tribe, we have Alex and Matteo swimming, Emi and Becky in the jungle gym and Francis and Ryan on the puzzle,” Jeff shouted from his spot on the shore. “For Beauty, we have Noah and Gabe in the water, Holly and Nicole in the jungle gym and Lincoln and Margarita on the puzzle. And for Brawn, it’s Peter and Joe swimming, Brandon and Liz on the jungle gym and Aishe and Roxanne on the puzzle.” Jeff raised his left arm. “Survivors ready!” He brought it down and raised his right. “Go!”

Alex took a deep breath and dove into the water, breaking it cleanly, enjoying the coolness of the water against her skin. It was mid-morning, but it was already hot out. Without even surfacing, she dove down to the first key, noticing the crew members filming around her underwater. She forced her fingers to work quickly and she pulled the key on its loop free. She used her legs to push herself to the surface quickly, taking a large breath before diving back down for the next one, about ten feet further towards the shore. Moments later, that key was freed as well. As she surfaced, Alex looked to her left to see where the others were at. She made a quick decision and dove down to get a third key, despite her prior conversation with the tribe. They were in the lead and if Alex could let Matteo make up a bit of time by collecting a key for him, they should be in great position to start the jungle gym portion. She untied the key and surfaced again, swimming easily towards the shore.

“Alex is up with her third key, leaving just one key for Matteo. The Brains tribe is still just in the lead,” Jeff announced. Alex let his words power her and she got to the shallow water and ran to the mat.

“Brains, you’re good, go!” said Jeff as soon as Alex reached the mat. Alex watched as Matteo dove into the water and knew he’d be able to concentrate on just swimming until the last buoy. She felt she’d made the right decision.

“Brawn, you’re good!” he called as one of the purple-clad men arrived at his mat. Alex noticed he only carried two keys and she smirked to herself.

Beauty seemed to be struggling and Matteo was already at the last buoy by the time either Noah or Gabe, she wasn’t sure which, arrived at his mat.

“Beauty, you’re good, gotta step it up!” challenged Jeff.

Matteo made his way to the mat and Jeff turned. “Brains, go!” he shouted towards Emi and Becky.

“Good call,” Matteo said to her, panting. “You definitely swim better than I do.”

She shrugged. “I grew up in the ocean, what can I say?” she grinned.

They both turned their attention to their teammates in the jungle gym. Emi was expertly navigating the upper path while Becky was crawling around on the lower levels, both searching for the path to the midpoint, which is where the keys were.

“So, uh,” Matteo said, quietly, still gazing at the jungle gym. “Did you want to maybe form an alliance?”

Alex managed to keep from laughing. “Uh, yeah, sure, that’d be cool,” she said.

“Do you have anyone else on your side?”

She shrugged, slightly. “Not sure,” she said. “You?” Alex wanted to hear more about his situation before offering him any information about how she and Becky had already formed an alliance the day before.

“Don’t think so, nothing formal,” he admitted. “I feel a little like I’m the odd-man out.”

She turned to look at him. “Why’s that?”

“Well, being Latino for one. I mean, sure, Emi’s Asian, but the rest of you are all white. I think I’m probably the oldest on our tribe, since I’m pushing 40. I’m also the only guy who seems to be in shape. I feel like the other guys think I’m some kind of jock,” he admitted softly, still gazing at the teammates on the jungle gym.

“And you’re not?” she joked.

“I’m a software engineer,” he grinned, turning to face her. “Just because I know where the gym is doesn’t mean I don’t know how to write code.”

She considered that. “I think Ryan is in tech too, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he’s into operations and networking and security.”

She nodded.

“How about you?”

Alex had long-since decided she wouldn’t tell anyone she was a federal agent. “Biologist,” she answered, simply. Nothing about her medical degree, nothing about being a field agent, just simply a biologist, which usually resulted in someone tucking away that information and not giving it another thought.

“Cool, cool,” he said, essentially proving her point.

By then, Emi had finished her portion of the jungle gym and they were just waiting on Becky.

“Brains tribe, you’re good!” Jeff shouted a few seconds later, causing Francis to run towards Alex and Matteo, while Ryan ran the short distance to Becky and Emi. They handed off the keys and, together, ran for the mat. Their tribe was still in the lead and now it was up to Francis and Ryan to solve the 18 piece puzzle after managing to open all the locks on all six containers.

Brawn was close behind, arriving at their final mat maybe thirty seconds after the Brains tribe did, while Beauty was struggling on the jungle gym. Their tribe already had all the puzzle pieces out by the time Beauty finally started in on opening their containers.

“Brains has been in the lead since Alex first dove into the water,” Jeff announced, pacing between the different tables. “Brawn’s been right behind them but Beauty needs to step it up or they’re going back to camp with nothing. Can Margarita and Lincoln work together quickly enough to close the gap?”

Alex looked over at the Beauty tribe table. Margarita was the one with the sunshine t-shirt. She looked at her critically, noting the woman’s absolute focus and determination as she methodically laid out the puzzle pieces to examine them.

Francis and Ryan, meanwhile, were not making a ton of progress, with Ryan trying to take charge and not listening to what Francis was saying. Aishe and Roxanne, from the Brawn tribe, weren’t progressing much, either, though. They both made some aborted attempts, but couldn’t seem to get any traction to start.

Alex was staring at the letters on their table, mulling over the combinations, when she caught some movement from the Beauty table out of the corner of her eye. She looked at Margarita, who was smiling. “Oh shit, Beauty’s found something,” she whispered to the three others on her tribe. She craned her neck to see if she could get an idea of what the puzzle was supposed to be, her mind whirring with possibilities. She caught a glimpse of the first word on Margarita’s puzzle. “Guys!” she said, the solution clicking in her head. She cupped her hands around her mouth and mouthed: “FIRE REPRESENTS LIFE” to Francis and Ryan.

Ryan’s eyes widened and he quickly assembled the words.

“Jeff!” he called, pulling his hands from the completed puzzle.

“BRAINS WINS REWARD!” Jeff said after a glance at the table, raising his arms. “Looking for one more winner!”

The Brains tribe fell into a group hug, cheering and jumping. Alex had rarely felt so exhilarated. They had  _ won _ !

“Jeff!” called Lincoln, just seconds later.

“That’s correct!” Jeff said, his arms going up again. “Fire represents life! Beauty wins fire!”

A few minutes later, they were all properly lined up on their respective tribe mats. “Brains, congratulations, here’s your tarp,” he said, handing a neatly-folded tarp to Becky. “And here’s fire, in the form of flint.” He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, tossing it to Alex.

“Beauty, nice job coming from behind. Here’s your flint.” He pulled another from his pocket and tossed it at Gabe.

“Brawn, sorry, got nothing for ya.” He shrugged. “Have a good afternoon, head back to camp.”

As they started to pack up their stuff and disperse, Alex noted some of the Beauty tribe glaring at her, including Margarita.

“What?” she asked, after putting her sweatshirt back on.

“You cheated,” one of the other girls said.

Alex rolled her eyes. “All’s fair in love, war and Survivor, isn’t that right?” she asked the man in orange who’d stolen the fishing kit from her on the boat.

“You saw my puzzle,” Margarita said, standing with her hands on her hips.

“And?” she challenged.

“And you’re okay with that? With taking that knowledge and using it to win the challenge?”

Alex took a couple of steps forward, mirroring the other woman’s stance. “How many times have people looked at other people’s puzzles to finish things? There are a million examples. If they didn’t want us looking at what the other tribes were doing, there would be dividers or something to prevent us from peeking.”

Margarita took another few steps forward and stared, hard, up into Alex’s eyes.

“W-what, uh, what are you doing?” Alex stammered, caught off-guard by the woman’s movement into her personal space.

“Just wanted to get a good look into the soul of a cheater,” she said. “See you around,  _ nerd _ ,” she said, her eyes flicking down to Alex’s lips before she turned and stormed away with the rest of her tribe.

“See ya ‘round, Sunshine!” she called back, after taking a moment to breathe.

Margarita turned back and shot her a glare before catching up with the rest of her tribe.

“You okay?” Matteo asked, coming up to her.

She folded her arms across her chest, the fingers of her right arm lightly tapping her bicep, unconsciously. “Yeah,” she said, staring at the departing Beauty tribe. “Just some trash talk about us cheating.”

“I heard,” he said. “You seemed to have that pretty well handled, though.”

Alex nodded and turned to face him. “Yeah, just, you know, petty stuff. I bet they edit this to make it look like we’re each other’s nemesis or something,” she muttered.

He laughed. “Probably.” He looked over at the rest of their tribe. “C’mon, let’s go catch up before they bust us on our alliance.”

Alex grinned and nodded and together, the six of them made their way back to the Brain camp.

 

***

 

_ Day 3 _

The tarp had helped in the sense that Alex felt she was  _ sort of _ indoors when she was in the lean-to, but it had done little to help her sleep. Despite being exhausted, she found herself wide awake again in the night and was still awake when the soft, pre-dawn light broke open the darkness of the immense sky above them, chasing all but the brightest of stars away. With a sigh, Alex carefully extricated herself from the group and clambered out of the lean-to. She took a long drink of water from her canteen before poking at the still-hot coals that were the remnants of their fire from the night before. It had been wonderful to have some rice and a few beans with two bananas for what passed as dinner.

_Gotta be an immunity_ _challenge today,_ she thought to herself as she carefully tried to build the fire back up, dropping some coconut husk and small sticks on top of the coals, careful not to suffocate them. She blew softly until they caught fire and added some larger sticks in a pyramid formation until she could add another log.

While she was nervous about the possibility of going to Tribal Council, she was relatively certain she wouldn’t get voted out if they finished third. She had Becky and Matteo as alliance partners, so unless the three others had teamed up against them, which she thought was unlikely, based on how Ryan and Francis had interacted together the day before, she was probably safe. No, what worried her most about the forthcoming challenge was seeing Margarita.

She sat back on the sand, her knees up, elbows resting on them, her hands clasped in front of her. It wasn’t cheating by  _ Survivor _ standards, obviously. Would she do it in her real life? Probably not. But then, a million dollars wasn’t on the line. She scoffed, quietly. Would Margarita condemn her for lying about her profession? About her orientation, if it came up? About whether or not someone was being voted out? The judgment she felt from the other woman sliced deeply, for some reason.

She quirked a quick smile.  _ For some reason. _ Alex nearly snorted at herself. She knew why. She couldn’t vocalize it, not even to herself, for fear it would be caught on tape, but it was obviously because she found Margarita attractive. Having Margarita in her personal space, challenging her, the energy moving between them… She sighed. She could have easily leaned down and kissed her. And, Alex suspected, Margarita might have enjoyed it. She’d caught the glance at her lips. She was fairly sure she knew what that meant — that Margarita had at least thought about kissing her. Maybe.

That’s what really had her nervous. Not the challenge.

That is, until she  _ saw _ the challenge and her throat threatened to close up. Jeff called them all in and, as they all approached their coloured mats, Alex’s quick mind realized precisely which challenge they’d be doing that day. It was an older challenge, one that involved getting incredibly dizzy and then walking over a balance beam. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around her midsection. She  _ hated _ being dizzy. She didn’t normally get motion-sick, but all bets were off when it came to dizziness.

“Welcome to your first immunity challenge,” Jeff said, hands on his hips, smiling. “Today’s challenge will be done in rounds. One tribe member for each tribe will sit on a spinning platform. Another tribe member will run out to them, pick up the rope and run back to the start, which will spin that first tribe member. While still dizzy, the tribe member needs to cross a balance beam without falling off. The first two tribes to have their dizzy members cross the beam will earn a point for their tribe. Three points gets you the win and the first two tribes to three points will get immunity. Losers get a date with me at Tribal Council where the first person will be voted out of Brains versus Brawn versus Beauty 3. Let’s get started, I’ll give you a few minutes to strategize.”

The tribes huddled together.

“I’m just going to say it, I do not do well with being dizzy,” Alex said. “I’m probably not going to get a point.”

“We’ll have you go first, then, so at least we can see where we’re at after the first round,” Ryan said. “If that’s cool?”

She nodded. “Let’s get it over with.”

Shortly, they were all in their places. Alex was on the spinning platform, against Liz from the Brawn tribe and Margarita, from the Beauty tribe. Margarita was, of course, right next to her.

“How’re you gonna cheat your way to victory this time, nerd?” she jabbed.

Alex’s only response was to roll her eyes. The provocation only increased her desire not to screw this up. She literally only had to come in second. Maybe she could do this.

Their tribemates picked up the ends of the ropes and dug in, ready to run as fast as they could, spinning them all around, letting them off the platform as quickly as possible. Alex frowned and lifted her head suddenly. “Matteo!” she whispered.

He came over to her. “What? Are you okay?”

“Don’t go as fast as you possibly can.”

“Why not?”

“Just… trust me.”

He shrugged. “Okay.” He got back into position and Jeff raised a hand.

“Survivors ready?” he bellowed. “Go!” He dropped the one hand and raised the other.

While the other people on the spinning platforms spun insanely fast as their tribemates ran as quickly as possible back to the starting point, Matteo took his time, jogging lightly to the line. The result was as Alex had hoped. She was dizzy, but not terribly so, and, although her competitors had been released before she had been, she was in much better shape to take on the balance beam.

“See ya, Sunshine,” she quipped, as she strode past a staggering Margarita. She took a breath and focused on the beam, slowly, but steadily putting one foot in front of the other.

“Brains is in the lead for this segment,” Jeff called out, “even though Alex left her platform last. It was a risky move, but Alex is making good time.”

She smiled as she held out her arms for balance. Five steps away. Four. Three. She leapt to the sand on the other side.

“Brains gets a point! Waiting for a second point. Beauty is not looking good, Margarita’s fallen once and has had to go back to the start. Brawn’s looking okay, Liz hasn’t fallen off — looks like I spoke too soon. Beauty is now in the lead as Brawn has to start again.”

They all watched Margarita fall off, right at the end.

“This is a big chance for Brawn!” Jeff called out, somewhat redundantly, as Margarita groaned and made her way back to the start.

“Brawn gets a point! Brains and Brawn win the round, 1-1, Beauty has zip.”

“Thanks, Jeff,” Gabe muttered.

“That was a great idea,” Becky said. “Do you think they’ll copy us?”

Alex shrugged. “Maybe? Matteo, watch what they do before you even start.”

He nodded. “Who’s up next?”

“I’ll go,” said Emi. “I did figure skating. You can run pretty fast, Matteo, I shouldn’t be too dizzy.”

“Secret weapon, all right!” laughed Becky.

For the next round, it was Emi versus Roxanne of Brawn and Holly of Beauty.

“Survivors ready? Go!”

The others had, indeed, picked up on Brain’s prior strategy, so when Matteo ran back quickly, causing Emi to spin insanely fast, no one was expecting it. They further weren’t expecting Emi to win a point with ease. Beauty got a point that round.

“Gotta pick it up, Brawn and Beauty. The score is Brains 2, Brawn and Beauty at one each. Brains could win this next round.”

“Slow or fast, Becky?” asked Matteo.

“Slow, please,” she said.

“Got it.”

She got into her place and was facing Aishe from Brawn and Nicole from Beauty.

“Survivors ready? Go!”

Matteo took his time, staying just a little ahead of the other tribes who had elected to stick with the slow spin method.

Becky staggered badly as she came off the platform, but managed to recover enough to get to the beam. She took her time and Beauty got there first, but she beat Aishe from Brawn, who fell off the beam twice.

As she jumped delicately from the beam, the entire tribe mobbed her, while Jeff announced what they already knew.

“Brains wins immunity! We’ll continue with the other two tribes until one of them hits three points.”

From the sidelines, the Brains tribe watched Beauty beat Brawn, tying the score at two apiece.

For the final round, it was a rematch. Margarita from Beauty would face off against Liz from Brawn again.

Liz looked as though she was going to throw up after she got up from the platform. Margarita was determined, but incredibly dizzy, as she was walking off to her left uncontrollably. Alex found herself almost pulling for Margarita and was actually pretty sad that Liz ended up winning the point.

“Brawn wins immunity!”

Margarita stepped off the end of the beam two seconds later, determined to finish the task.

When the celebrations had died down, they all congregated at their tribal mats.

“Brains, Brawn, congrats,” he said, handing out two carved, wooden idols. They were moderately grotesque, but Alex was so pleased to have won that she didn’t care how ugly they were.

“Beauty, got nothin’ for ya. See you tonight at Tribal.”

Alex looked over at Margarita, whose body language spoke volumes. Shoulders slumped, head bowed, she looked defeated. Alex bit her lip as she lingered for a moment. She wanted to apologize. Or something. Maybe just comment on the shirt, even? She wanted to say  _ something _ . Anything.

Margarita looked up and saw her staring. “What do you want?”

She shrugged. “Sorry.”

“Cheater,” she muttered and turned away.

“Hey,” Alex called, “hey, hold on a minute.”

“Seriously? What?”

Alex looked over at her tribe, which was slowly shuffling towards their beach, Matteo hanging back and looking over at her. She took a breath and turned towards Margarita. “Fight, Sunshine. Okay? You deserve to be here. Fight for it.”

Margarita blinked, clearly not expecting that.

“Good luck,” Alex said, then turned and jogged down the beach to join her tribe, hoping she’d get to see Margarita at the next challenge.

“What was that?” Matteo asked.

She shrugged. “I just wanted to tell her to fight for it, you know? And good luck.”

He laughed. “The producers are really going to hate you for that — they’re not going to be able to paint you as mortal enemies now.”

She grinned. “Tough luck for them.”

 

***

 

_ Day 5 _

The last two of nights had been somewhat better than the first couple. The looming threat of Tribal Council lifted, at least temporarily, meant that they could really focus on getting to know one another, strengthen their tribal bonds, work on their shelter and, of course, try to inconspicuously search for a hidden immunity idol. On the fourth day, Becky had indicated to Alex that they should go for a walk together to get water. Knowing better than to question her, Alex acquiesced and, once out of range of the camp, Becky revealed to Alex that she’d found a clue to a hidden immunity idol. Promising each other that they’d both decide on its use, regardless of who found it, the two of them spent time searching for it that day and into the next. It was almost enough of a distraction to keep Alex from thinking about Margarita.

Then, it was challenge time.

“Come on in, guys!” called Jeff. As she walked into the challenge area, she glanced around for the orange team. But of course, they’d hold off on bringing in the Beauty tribe until both Brains and Brawn were there, for maximum effect. She felt butterflies in her stomach.

“Beauty, c’mon in!” he called, once the other two tribes were at their mats. “Getting your first look at the new Beauty tribe,” Jeff commented, as they filed in. “Holly voted out at the last Tribal Council,” he said, just as she caught a glimpse of Margarita. She gave her a quick smile and a nod and, to her surprise, Margarita smiled back. She had dimples, Alex realized, and her stomach flipped over on itself. That was the moment Alex knew this girl could be trouble for her.

“For today’s reward challenge, two people from each tribe will swim from the platforms in the water to the beach. Each person will collect a bucket along the way. You’ll try to make sure the bucket is as full of water as possible, then pour the contents of the bucket into a larger bucket. Ideally, that will take two bucket loads in total. If the second teammate can’t fill it up, you have to send your first teammate back out along this ramp, back to the platforms, to collect more water. Once the water in the larger bucket hits the top of the painted line, your next two teammates can start in on the second phase.”

Matteo and Alex nodded to one another, understanding that they’d be the swimmers.

“Phase two consists of two tribemates from each tribe trying to find two bags of puzzle pieces in a huge mudpit. You’ll need one Bag A and one Bag B. Once you’ve found one of each, you can run them over to the puzzle station, where your final teammate will work to assemble a geometric puzzle consisting of six pieces.”

Alex blew out a breath. It was going to be a long challenge.

“Wanna know what you’re playing for?” Jeff asked.

All seventeen people cheered.

“The first team to finish will get a huge fishing kit,” he said, unveiling the table of equipment. “Fins, mask, snorkel, Hawaiian sling, rods, hooks, line. The works. The second team to finish will get a mask and a Hawaiian sling. Third team, nothing. Sound worth playing for?”

Again, they all cheered, Alex dreaming about going fishing in the reefs already.

“All right, let’s get to it. I’ll give you all a minute to strategize, including deciding who sits out for Brains and Brawn. Remember, you cannot sit out the same person in back to back challenges.”

“We should sit Matteo,” Ryan said, immediately.

“What, why? I can swim well,” he said, defensively.

“Yeah, but you’re our strongest guy. We’ll probably need you for immunity,” he pointed out.

He considered. “Okay. So who sits out for immunity?”

“I will,” said Emi. “I can do the mudpit here.”

“I’ll do the mudpit, too,” said Francis, “if Becky can swim?”

She nodded. “Might not be as good as either Matteo or Alex, but sure.”

“And I’ll do the puzzle, then,” Ryan nodded.

Once they were all ready, Jeff had all the swimmers walk out to the platform together, the bucket lashed to a post about midway between the platform and the beach.

“They’re probably going to rush,” Alex said to Becky, softly, “and they’ll probably spill too much water. If we take our time and manage the walk from the water to the big bucket, we should be able to avoid coming back out.”

Becky nodded. “But, just in case, you’re gonna go first and possibly third, right?” she grinned.

Alex laughed. “Sure.”

Unsurprisingly, both Brawn and Beauty put out their big guys on the platform, the same ones Alex and Matteo had faced during their first challenge, Noah and Gabe for Beauty, Peter and Joe for Brawn.

“Okay,” said Jeff, “we’ve got Brandon from Brawn and Matteo from Brains sitting. On the platforms, we’ve got Alex and Becky from Brains, Noah and Gabe for Beauty, Peter and Joe for Brawn. In the mudpit, we have Emi and Francis for Brains, Lincoln and Nicole for Beauty and Aishe and Roxanne for Brawn. Finally, on the puzzles, we have Ryan for Brains, Liz for Brawn and Margarita for Beauty.” He scanned the game area. “Survivors ready?” he asked, raising his left hand. “Go!” he said, pushing his right arm into the air.

Alex broke the water cleanly and swam the entire way underwater until she got to the post. She surfaced and took a deep breath while she began with the first set of knots, then dove down to finish the second set. She popped up to the surface and dragged the bucket along the way. As she hit the shallows, she was careful to slow down and make sure the bucket was as full as possible. She carefully carried it, aware that the Brawn guy was sprinting ahead, but confident she’d get more water in than he would.

“Brawn, you’re good, go!” Jeff called out, while Alex carefully poured her water into the larger bucket and saw, with satisfaction, that it was more than half full.

“Brains, you’re good, go!” he called.

Becky dove in and did a halfway decent front crawl to the post and untied her bucket. Alex moved down the beach to the ramp to the floating platform, in case Becky didn’t collect enough water. She watched as Joe, she thought his name was, got the second Brawn bucket just as Becky got hers, while Beauty was just behind them. Alex was still certain they’d have to go through it a third time.

Joe beat Becky to the larger bucket. “Jeff!” he called, after pouring his water out.

Jeff jogged over to inspect. “Not enough, go again, Brawn!”

“What are you talking about?! It hit the line!”

“Gotta go OVER the painted line, Joe,” he chided him. “Peter, get back out there.”

In the meantime, Becky had followed Alex’s lead and had taken her time in bringing her bucket in. She carefully tipped all the water in. “Jeff!” she called.

“Brains, you’re good! Start on the mudpit!”

Jeff was then called to check on the Beauty bucket. “Beauty, you’re good! You can start in the mudpit!”

Alex hadn’t been expecting that, so she watched with interest as Emi, Francis, Lincoln and Nicole flailed around in the mud. Lincoln got a Bag B, while Emi found a Bag A a moment later. Emi found the second bag before the Brawn team was even allowed into the mudpit.

“Brains, go!” Jeff said, and Emi and Francis, covered in mud, ran the bags over to Ryan, who started flying through the knots as quickly as he could.

Finally, Brawn was allowed to start in on the second phase, but Beauty had found their second bag. Ryan had one bag open by the time Margarita could start untying her bags.

Ryan was the first to get all six pieces out of the waterproof bags. He immediately started trying to piece them together, the rest of them giving him advice.

Margarita soon had all six of her pieces out, while Liz from Brawn was waiting on her bags from her teammates.

Ryan had created a base and it appeared that all he had to do was fit three pieces together on top of that to make what was likely a pyramid shape, but they just weren’t fitting together properly.

“Brains had a nice lead over Beauty, but neither Ryan or Margarita have quite figured out the puzzle yet. Brawn, step it up!”

“Be methodical!” Francis called, still covered in the thick, brown mud. “Change one angle on one piece at a time.”

“What the hell do you think I’m doing?!” Ryan snapped.

Meanwhile, Alex surreptitiously watched Margarita. She hadn’t built anything like a base so far. She was just examining how the pieces might possibly fit together. And who could blame her? At worst, it looked as though Beauty would come in second place, since Brawn hadn’t even started the puzzle.

Alex turned back to look at Ryan’s puzzle. It just didn’t seem to be working in any of the permutations he was trying.

“Jeff!” called out Margarita, lifting her hands from what ended up being a cube.

“Beauty wins reward!” called Jeff, causing the entire orange tribe to mob Margarita. “Still looking for second place,” he called. “Can Brawn find their bags and beat Brains?”

“It’s a cube?!” Ryan asked, bewildered. “Man, do I have this all wrong?” He dissembled what he had already built and tried another few permutations. By the time Brawn finally got their bags to Liz, Ryan found the magic combination and slid the pieces together.

“Jeff!” he cried.

“Brains wins reward!”

They jumped into each others’ arms, getting muddy and not caring.

As they separated and started to move towards their tribe’s mats, Alex paused by Margarita. “Nice job, Sunshine,” she said, in a low voice, but with a genuine smile on her face.

“Thanks,” she acknowledged, before they moved apart and were awarded their gear by Jeff.

They got back to the beach and Alex couldn’t stop herself from being overly eager about trying out the mask and Hawaiian sling. “Do you guys mind if I try to catch something?”

“Don’t break it,” Ryan said.

She looked at him. “I’m not going to break it.”

“Have you ever used a Hawaiian spear before?”

“No, but—”

“Exactly. Be careful with it. I’ve seen people stab it into the rocks too often on the show, breaking one of the tines,” he said, from his spot against a tree.

She forced a smile. “I promise I’ll be careful,” she said.

“I have full faith in you, Alex!” Becky called out, helpfully.

“Me too,” said Matteo.

Ryan just grunted at that and pulled a banana from the nearby bunch and peeled it. “Just don’t come crying to me when it breaks.”

Alex forced herself to ignore his words and smiled her gratitude to both Matteo and Becky. She left her bag and sweatshirt on the spot in the shelter she’d thought of as her own and then grabbed the mask and the sling, barely able to contain her joy at the prospect of going snorkeling, essentially, in Fiji.

She’d always felt most at home in the water, most relaxed. She rarely got the chance to get to the ocean with work obligations and such, so being on  _ Survivor _ was a great excuse to let her relax and get restored by the sea, even though she was being followed by a cameraman. As she waded into the water from their beach, she adjusted her mask, then, holding the mask to her face to prevent it from moving, she took a deep breath and dove into the water.

While she wasn’t terribly bothered by sea water in her eyes, everything was pretty blurry underwater, so seeing the sandy ocean floor with remarkable clarity was a thrill. She swam underwater for a good thirty feet out or so before surfacing again. She treaded water for a moment to take an extra large breath before diving down towards the coral reef nearby. Careful not to touch the reef, she swam down, down, popping her ears a bit along the way. She didn’t have much time before she’d have to surface again for air, but it was gorgeous. Hundreds of small, colourful fish swam in and out of the coral structures, with a couple of larger ones swimming along. She definitely spotted an angelfish before she surfaced. Again, Alex treaded water for a bit to catch her breath. As she did so, she noticed all five of her tribemates chatting together, back at the shelter. That made her nervous. Was her absence allowing them to all conspire against her? She decided she’d just make a couple more dives and head back.

It was her last dive when she caught sight of the angelfish again and released the sling, causing the spear portion to shoot forward. When she saw that she’d cleanly impaled it, she couldn’t help herself and hollered “YES!” underwater, much to the cameraman’s amusement. She gave the camera a huge grin and a thumbs-up before kicking up towards the surface, victorious.

She swam back to camp where everyone, except Ryan, congratulated her on her kill. That night, they filleted the fish and cooked it up, adding some much-needed protein to their nightly cup of rice and bananas. For the first time since she’d arrived in Fiji, Alex slept the full night and woke up feeling content and rested.

 

***

 

_ Day 6 _

They all trudged out to the immunity challenge when instructed to and Alex was pleased to see it was another water-based challenge. Since they’d sat Matteo in the reward challenge, it meant their two best swimmers would be playing.

“I think our odds just went way up,” Matteo murmured to her, as though reading her mind.

She nodded and smiled at him.

The goal of the challenge was for each person to dive off of their platform and retrieve one of five buoys, each one deeper than the previous one. Buoys would be placed at three, six, nine, twelve and fifteen feet underwater. Once retrieved, all five buoys had to be tossed into a container. Once someone had retrieved a buoy from its spot underwater, the person had to leave the water. At that point, any team member, including the person last in the water, could jump back in. Finally, only one buoy could be attempted at a time — if a buoy was in the water, you had to wait for your teammates in the water to get it back to the platform.

The first two teams to get all their buoys into the container would win immunity. Amongst themselves, the Brain tribe decided their order: Ryan would get the first buoy at three feet, followed by Becky at six feet, Francis at nine feet, Matteo at twelve feet and Alex at fifteen feet. Alex was also the go-to backup in case anyone struggled, while Matteo would do the tossing and Francis and Becky would be in the water to fetch errant balls.

“Okay, we have Emi from Brains sitting out as well as Aishe from Brawn,” called Jeff, raising his left arm. “Survivors ready? Go!” he shouted, his left arm dropping and his right going up.

Alex watched as Ryan clumsily swam out to the buoy rope and took a breath and headed down to unlatch the buoy. She sighed. Liz, from Brawn, and Nicole, she thought that was her name, from Beauty had easily beaten Francis to the rope. She looked over to the Beauty platform. Margarita looked as though she was up next. For once, she wasn’t wearing her Hello Sunshine shirt, clad only in a two-piece bathing suit, with a sports bra-type top. She turned and looked away, back towards Ryan and their buoys. She should not let herself be distracted by the vast amounts of Margarita’s tan skin that was visible. She swallowed. Unable to help herself, she took a quick look back at Beauty. There were muscles rippling beneath the other woman’s curves. Alex watched as Margarita’s teammate came back with the buoy and tagged her in. She dove into the water, not cleanly, but Alex had seen worse. She took another breath and returned her attention to her own team. Ryan had finally undone the first buoy and was trying to bring it back to the platform. When he and the buoy made it, the team helped him up out of the water and he dunked the buoy into their basket before tagging Becky and then he lay there, exhausted from the effort. Becky dove in and went directly for the buoy without taking another breath, likely hoping to make up time.

Alex stole another glance towards the Beauty platform and noticed that Margarita had no issues in bringing her buoy back. Soon enough, they were already on their third teammate, while Becky had had to dive down again to unhitch the buoy, costing them some time. Alex looked towards the far platform. At least Brawn was still even with them, it seemed.

Becky got back and Francis dove clumsily into the water, awkwardly doggy-paddling to the buoy and then taking a large breath. He pulled himself down the rope and, surprisingly got the buoy up, but then had too much trouble bringing it back.

“Francis, just come on, let’s go,” Alex said, “I’ll bring it in.”

Gratefully, Francis came back to the platform where Matteo essentially pulled him out of the water. Alex slapped his hand and dove in, reaching the buoy in seconds and throwing it hard at the platform. Becky caught it and Alex propelled herself back to the platform, grabbing the buoy and dunking it before tagging Matteo.

As expected, Matteo did great, diving down quickly. Alex took her spot at the front of the platform, ready to go, keeping an eye on the other tribes. Beauty was doing well, they were on their last person, Gabe. Brawn was on their fourth. With any luck, Alex could make up some time.

Matteo popped back up with the buoy and launched it at the platform where Alex caught it and handed it to Becky. Matteo swam back, hoisted himself out of the water, dunked the buoy and tagged Alex in. She took a large breath and a bit of a running start and dove directly down to the last buoy, unlatching it with ease. She gathered her legs beneath her and pushed, surfacing a moment after the buoy. She grabbed it and tossed it close enough to the platform for Francis to pick up out of the water. She climbed out of the water and dunked the buoy. “Stay here,” she said. “Becky, I’m with you.”

The other woman nodded and both dove back into the water as Matteo took his first shot, sinking it cleanly. Alex took the rear of the platform while Becky took the front and they worked efficiently together. She took a moment to look out at Beauty. They had three buoys in compared to their one. Brawn didn’t have any in, surprisingly. It was a tight race. She looked around and saw Margarita treading water nearby and the distraction nearly got Alex beaned in the head by Matteo’s throw. “Hey!” she called “Watch it!” She tossed it back as hard as she could and Francis scooped it out of the water, handing it to Matteo who called out a “sorry!”.

Beauty got to five easily, thanks to Lincoln’s throwing abilities, winning immunity. Alex glanced towards Brawn. By that point, they were at four, same as her own team. Matteo took careful aim and sunk the final buoy for them.

“Brains wins immunity!” Jeff called, raising both arms. Francis hugged Matteo and high-fived Ryan, who was still sitting on the platform, still exhausted.

Once they were all back on their platforms, the immunity idols were handed out. Margarita tossed Brains theirs, Alex catching it, smiling a thank you to her. She nodded and smiled back.

“Good job, Beauty, Brains! Grab your stuff, head back to camp. Brawn, see you tonight at Tribal Council, where the second player of the game will be voted out.”

All the contestants started swimming back to shore where they’d left most of their stuff. Alex tried not to watch Margarita as she came out of the water, but couldn’t help herself. The woman was gorgeous. The moment was almost as though it was in slow-motion, with water dripping from her skin, her hair… Her hair, which she pulled back with a sturdy elastic to keep it out of her face. Her face… The dimples from her smile made Alex feel swoony as she pulled her hoodie on and grabbed her canteen and bag. She took a deep breath and took off down the path, following her tribe, but she couldn’t help looking back once more. To her surprise, she saw Margarita looking at her and the other woman smiled before she headed off with her own tribe.

_ Danvers, you are in serious trouble, _ she said to herself, chidingly.  _ Keep your head in the game! _

Once back at camp, Alex decided not to go fishing and, instead, touch base with Becky and Matteo, if at all possible, to shore up her alliances. She was pretty sure they were all still on the same page, but the conversation she’d witnessed from the day before had her a little concerned. What concerned her most was that she was letting herself be distracted by a pretty girl.

“I’m gonna get water,” she announced. “Anyone want to come with?”

Becky nodded. “Sure, I’ll come.”

“Awesome,” she said. They took all the canteens and headed for the well together.

“I’m so glad we have a chance to talk,” Becky said, once they were out of earshot and making their way down the path to the well.

“Me too,” Alex said. “Maybe we can even look for the idol a bit while we’re away.”

“That would be a good idea,” she said, “because Ryan is looking to get rid of you if we lose the next challenge.”

Alex stopped dead in her tracks. “What, really? Is that what you guys were talking about while I was fishing?”

She nodded. “Matteo and I both argued that it would be a dumb move, since you’re basically the reason we’re winning any challenges. I mean, we beat Brawn today because of you and Matteo, no thanks to Ryan or Francis.”

Alex considered as they started walking again. “Yeah, but that must paint a target on my back. I’m smart, I’m athletic, I can catch fish…” She sighed. “He definitely wants me out before the merge so that I’m not around to win individual immunity,” she muttered.

“Well, at the very least, we have three votes not for you,” Becky said. “Matteo, you and me, we can vote for Ryan, while feeling out where Emi and Francis stand. If we even lose an immunity challenge, that is.”

Alex blew out a breath. “We can’t think like that, can’t be overconfident,” she warned.

“Yeah, but we’re strong and we’re smart, so…”

“… so let’s try to find that idol anyway,” Alex grinned. “You have the note with you?”

Becky nodded and stopped walking, then pulled it out of the pocket of her shorts.

“A CLUE YOU HAVE FOUND

A PATH MUST BE WOUND

NEAR THE BIGGEST TREE

FACING THE SEA.”

“Still helpful as ever,” Becky muttered.

Alex nodded and they continued to walk towards the well. “The biggest tree facing the sea that I’ve seen is the one at the well. But what does ‘a path must be wound’ mean?”

“I agree, it’s got to be that tree,” she said, putting the note away. “A winding path isn’t straight. I wonder if there’s another marker somewhere and we have to take a strange route to get there.”

“Oh, now that’s interesting,” Alex said. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe we missed a marker when we looked at that tree the other day.”

The two of them filled up the canteens and spent a good fifteen minutes poking around at the tree and looking around at other potential landmarks but came away empty-handed.

“You don’t suppose someone else has already found it?” Alex asked.

“Without the clue?”

She shrugged. “We’re the Brains tribe, aren’t we supposed to be smart about this stuff?” she grinned.

“Yeah, super smart,” Becky laughed. “We haven’t found it yet and we  _ have _ the clue.”

Alex chuckled. “Hey, uh, on a serious note, thank you for telling me about the conversation with Ryan yesterday.”

“Of course!” she said. “That’s what you do in an alliance, right?”

Alex smiled. “Right. But I still appreciate it.”

“I know you’d do the same for me,” Becky said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some YouTube links for related Survivor moments! Open in a new tab to come back here easily.
> 
> [Typical Start](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_P4dgrWwHY)
> 
> [Dizzy Challenge (immunity 1)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_74bofHU40E)
> 
> [Water Challenge (immunity 2)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMBbRZavR4o)


	2. Day 8 - 26

_ Day 8 _

It was reward challenge day and Alex was sitting out the challenge which had to do with picking up puzzle pieces from various stations by virtue of unlocking boxes with different combinations of the same six numbers. She was alone on the sit-out bench, since Liz from the Brawn tribe, the cute athlete she’d noticed that first day, had been voted out and only Brains, surprisingly, had an extra member.

She didn’t mind sitting out, particularly as it was a land-based challenge. It would make more sense to keep her available for a water-based immunity challenge, though the reward was three hens and a rooster for first place, and a dozen eggs for second place. Still, from the bench she could also try to evaluate the various people on the other tribes, in terms of their physicality, at the very least.

Alex sighed to herself. She knew who she’d be keeping an eye on. Margarita had already given her a smile. With the dimples. How Alex had yet to swoon in the woman’s presence, she had no idea, but was thankful she hadn’t embarrassed herself like that. At least not yet.

Jeff started the challenge and Alex sat forward on the bench, leaning her forearms on her thighs, watching everything carefully. Becky and Matteo seemed to have things well in-hand for their team, while it looked like Lincoln on Beauty was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, much to Margarita’s consternation. Alex shifted positions, hooking her feet under the bench a bit and felt something scrape her calf. Careful not to react outwardly, she flexed her left calf. Whatever it was wasn’t solid. It had give to it. She thought quickly and pulled off her hoodie, draping it over her legs. With extreme caution, she leaned forward and dropped her left arm as if she were scratching her leg and felt parchment paper. She quickly grabbed it and brought her hand up into her lap, placing the paper in the hood portion of the hoodie. She glanced up and was pleased to see no one was watching her. She deftly untied the string around the parchment and snuck a peek.

“CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE FOUND AN ADVANTAGE IN THE GAME!”

Her heart pounding, Alex folded it up quickly, tied it back up and stuffed it in one of the side pockets of her hoodie, then folded the sweatshirt up with that pocket on the inside. True, she had no idea what the advantage was, but she’d found one! And it was hers and hers alone.

The excitement almost made up for the fact that Brawn beat them for the chickens, though they did beat Beauty for the eggs. Alex shrugged an apology to Margarita as they headed out and she shrugged back.

Once back at camp, Alex excused herself to use the facilities, such as they were, and she opened up the note in full. It was an extra vote. It wasn’t a vote steal, it wasn’t an idol clue, it was just a simple extra vote. The instructions were clear — bring the vote to Tribal Council, vote twice when you vote. There was no announcement to make, though basic math would make it clear to everyone that there was, in fact, an extra vote being cast.

“The key,” she muttered to herself, for the benefit of the camera, “is to not try to wait for the perfect time to use it. I don’t want to go home with this in my pocket,” she said, folding it up and putting it into one of the pockets in her cargo pants.

With that, she rejoined the group and they all decided to have a full egg each, plus rice and a banana for dinner, while keeping the other egg ready for breakfast the next day, ahead of the immunity challenge.

Alex fell asleep quickly and slept well, feeling secure and comfortable in the game, for once.

 

***

 

_ Day 9 _

After a hearty breakfast in which they finished off the eggs, the Brains team arrived at the immunity challenge. Alex slumped. It wasn’t a water challenge. She glanced around as they walked to their mat and ascertained that she had no actual idea what was about to happen. She definitely didn’t like that. There were bags of what she could only assume were puzzle pieces tied to wooden posts across a sandy terrain, which looked to have obstacles in the way. But they weren’t things like balance beams or see-saws or obstacles like that. It just looked like junk. Her eyes went wide and she turned around to see three tall platforms.

She groaned softly. “I think it’s a calling challenge,” she muttered.

Jeff soon proved her right, indicating that one tribe member would be a caller and four tribe members would be blindfolded and instructed to pick up the bags of puzzle pieces tied to posts scattered around the field that someone on the tribe would then need to solve.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to strategize, then we’ll get started.”

Ryan offered to call, while Francis offered to sit if no one else wanted to. Both decisions were fine with the group and, soon enough, there were 12 blindfolded contestants, three callers and Francis on the bench as Jeff asked if the Survivors were ready.

“Go!” he called.

Alex didn’t move, she just waited for Ryan to get to her. She could hear him directing Emi, then Becky, then Matteo.

“OKAY, ALEX,” he shouted, “TAKE TWENTY PACES FORWARD THEN STOP.”

Arms outstretched, she counted out twenty slow paces and then stopped, not feeling anything around her.

“ALEX, TAKE FIVE BIG STEPS TO YOUR LEFT, YOUR LEFT.”

She took a breath and slowly slid out her left foot, hoping not to bash any part of her body against anything, then fully stepping into the new space. She repeated it until five big steps were taken. She reached out and felt nothing, listening for further instructions. Then, someone bumped into her.

“Hey, watch it,” she grumbled.

“Sorry, nerd,” came a familiar voice. “Don’t mind me.”

Alex froze as she felt hands encircle her waist and then stretch out in front of her. She was uncomfortably conscious of Margarita’s body pressing against her back. “Hi, there, Sunshine,” she said, much more calmly than she felt. “Can I, uh, help you out?”

Margarita laughed and retracted her arms, but still using Alex’s left shoulder as a touchpoint. “Sorry, just trying to find my bag.”

“ALEX, TWO MORE STEPS TO THE LEFT,” came her instructions from Ryan.

Taking those steps would move her directly into Margarita. “Sorry, Sunshine,” she apologized, as she grabbed hold of the other woman’s bare waist and quite literally lifted her out of the way, placing her down behind where she’d been standing.

“Hey!”

“Sorry!”

She took the two paces and her outstretched hands found the knotted string securing the puzzle bag — her own, she hoped — to the post.

“Pardon me,” Margarita said, hip-checking Alex to the side, the fingers of her right hand sliding along Alex’s left arm to the post, where she found the other puzzle bag.

“Nothing personal, you know,” Alex murmured.

“I know,” Margarita replied. “All’s fair, right?”

“Right,” Alex said, remembering one of the Beauty men having told her the same thing on the first day. “Oh, hey, I’ve been meaning to say…”

“Hm?”

“I love that shirt. I have one just like it at home.” Alex could feel herself blushing. She was thankful for the blindfolds which covered most of their faces.

“It’s a personal favourite of mine,” she said. “So much so that I stole it from my ex.”

Alex stopped working at the knots for moment as she digested that information. “From your ex?”

“Yup.”

Alex was aware of the whipping of the cords as Margarita yanked the bag free, but her mind was still stuck on the fact that Margarita’s ex was very likely a woman.

“Good luck, nerd,” she said, quietly, before hollering at Noah to guide her back.

_ Shit, way to go, Danvers, _ she admonished herself as she continued the work on the knots. Once done, she yelled at Ryan to guide her back, but it was complete pandemonium. Which was, she admitted, the point of the challenge.

Finally, he’d guided them all back and they could start on the puzzle, though Margarita was already making short work of it for Beauty and Brawn had already begun, too.

“Jeff!” called out Margarita, far too quickly.

“Beauty wins immunity!” he called, hands raised. “Looking for one more! Can Brains recover from the nightmare of having Ryan direct everyone?”

“Thanks, Jeff,” called out Ryan, “always love being called out on national television.”

“My pleasure, now step it up, Ryan!” Jeff responded.

“Jeff!” called Roxanne.

“Brawn wins immunity!”

Ryan shoved at the puzzle pieces and they fell to the sand as Brawn celebrated. Alex sighed. It was their first immunity defeat.

Jeff handed out the idols to the other tribes and promised to see them later that evening at Tribal Council.

Dejected, Alex picked up her canteen and hoodie. She turned to look at the other tribes, celebrating their victories. She caught Margarita’s eye and saw the other woman’s smile fade. She gave her a nod.

Alex shrugged in return and Margarita tilted her head to the side for an instant and then shook her head. The meaning was clear. “No, don’t just shrug. Fight. You belong here.”

Alex swallowed and gave as confident a nod as she could and was rewarded with a wink and a dimpled smile.

She grabbed her stuff and headed down the trail with Matteo, who was already murmuring to her about how they had to get Ryan out.

That afternoon, Alex was doing her best to figure out what Emi and Francis thought about voting out Ryan. She’d even approached Ryan to ask him who he wanted to vote out. He’d answered Emi, while Emi said she wasn’t sure. Francis, on the other hand, was all set to get rid of Ryan, so it looked as though it might be a 4-2 vote for Ryan, with those two votes going her way.

Foremost on her mind, of course, was the extra vote and the possibility of finding the idol. Becky hadn’t had any luck whatsoever in looking, and neither had she. Which meant, of course, that if Ryan had the idol, she’d surely be going home, extra vote or not.

She’d spent some time with both Matteo and Becky and was fairly certain the three of them would form a good voting bloc. They just needed Francis to vote against Ryan and she was hopeful he would, although Matteo wasn’t as certain as she was.

She and Becky made one more trip to the well and searched for the idol once more, but still turned up nothing, which didn’t reassure her. Becky had let her know that Ryan had put out the word that everyone should vote for Alex, repeating what he’d said the other day, so that had ratcheted up Alex’s nerves for sure. She just wouldn’t know until they got to Tribal Council. She had to trust in Becky and Matteo and had to believe that, at worst, barring an idol, they’d end up drawing rocks. She said as much in a confessional with the crew. That was one thing she hadn’t been prepared for. The sheer number of interviews or confessionals or whatever they were called was absurd. She must have talked to them for at least six hours so far over the last nine days, and she was certain she’d have something like three minutes of that footage aired.

They were told to get going to Tribal just before the sunset. Alex brought everything with her, including her extra vote, though she didn’t think there would be a point in using it.

Tribal Council was creepy, with carved gruesome masks and torches everywhere, casting long, dancing shadows in the dim light. Jeff stood at one end and, to Alex’s delight, launched into his speech.

“Brains, welcome to Tribal Council. You’ll find your torches behind you. Please take yours and dip it into the fire. On the island, fire represents your life,” he said, “and when it’s gone, so are you.”

Alex got a thrill from lowering her torch into the central fire pit before putting it back into the stand behind her seat. No matter what else was going on, she was at Tribal Council and that was freaking amazing.

“So let’s talk about the challenge today,” Jeff said. “Ryan, we’ve been doing this show for a long time and that was, bar none, the worst performance by a caller I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks, Jeff, really appreciate how you continue to kick me in the balls on national television,” Ryan retorted, causing the tribe to laugh.

“Just calling it like I see it, Ryan,” Jeff said, unfazed by the response. “How did you guys decide Ryan would do the calling? Emi?”

“Well,” Emi said, “he volunteered. With Francis sitting out, he was definitely going to do the puzzle, so I guess he thought it would be best if he called first, then did the puzzle?”

“Is that true, Ryan? Was that your reasoning?”

Ryan nodded. “I wanted to make sure I knew what was happening and that we had all the pieces needed for the puzzle. I also wanted to keep an eye on the other teams to see if they were doing anything with the puzzle if they got a head start on that.”

“And you were the puzzle guy?”

He shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

“Not that well,” Matteo muttered.

“What was that?” Ryan asked.

“Hey, hey, guys, calm down,” Becky said.

“No, I want to hear what this clown had to say,” Ryan argued.

“Matteo, would you care to repeat that?” Jeff asked.

He sighed. “I said you don’t do that well at the puzzles,” he repeated, a bit louder.

“What the hell?” Ryan said. “Jeff, can you believe how I’m being attacked like this?”

“It seems to me as though he has a point,” Jeff said, mildly. “I know Alex has helped you with puzzles, so has Francis.”

“Hey, don’t pull me into this, Jeff!” Francis laughed. “I’m more than happy to let Ryan do puzzles.”

“Even if he’s no good at them?” Matteo asked.

“This is slander. Or libel. It’s one of those things,” Ryan insisted. “Besides, the puzzle and the calling aren’t why we lost.”

Jeff looked back over at him. “Why do you think you lost the challenge?”

“Matteo didn’t listen to my instructions.”

“I couldn’t hear your instructions!”

“Well, you could have shouted that.”

“I did!” argued Matteo. “But you were too busy ordering other people around without making sure we understood you in the first place.”

“That’s crap,” Ryan said.

“Alex, you’ve been pretty quiet,” Jeff said. “What are your thoughts?”

She blew out a breath. “It did take a long time for Ryan to shout out his orders to me, but I did understand them and I did get my bag without issue.”

“Yeah, you just got all handsy with that Beauty chick,” Ryan scoffed.

Alex felt herself start to blush a bit and was thankful for the poor lighting conditions. “She was in my way. I moved her.” She shrugged. “I followed your instructions.”

“So, Alex, you don’t think Ryan’s calling was the cause for the loss?”

Alex shrugged again. “I think we were too far behind to make it up at the puzzle portion of the challenge and that’s why we lost. I’m not sure why it took Ryan a long time to shout to me, personally, and I was dealing with another player, so I didn’t really hear him calling out to others.”

“Becky, what about you?”

“There was definitely some miscommunication there, Jeff,” Becky said, “because at one point, he told me to go right, and I went right, and I smashed against an obstacle and he was like ‘sorry, meant left!’.”

“Oh man, is that what happened to your shin?” asked Emi.

Becky nodded.

“Is it still painful, Becky?” Jeff asked.

“Yeah, but it’s fine.” She lifted up her pant leg and the injury was scabbed over. “It’s good.”

“Okay, let me know if you need medical.”

“Should be fine,” she said.

“But you blame Ryan for that.”

“Well, yeah. He told me to go right, and I went right, but he meant left.”

“So what I’m hearing is that Ryan might be the one to go tonight. Is that fair?” asked Jeff. “Alex?”

“Wow, you don’t sugar coat things, do you?” she chuckled. “I mean, I know who I’m voting for and I would have been voting for that person three days ago, too.”

“Interesting. Is that an alliance vote? Or just you?”

She shrugged. “We haven’t been to Tribal Council before, Jeff,” she said, “so it’s hard to know if any alliances are actually firm. They haven’t been tested yet.”

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that. It is time to vote,” he said. “Ryan, you’re up.”

They each took their turn going down a small covered walkway to the stand where they would write down the person against whom they were voting. Alex was the last one to go up and thought again, briefly, about her extra vote. It wasn’t the right time to play it because the way she saw it, the only way she could get voted out was if Ryan had the idol. She took a deep breath and wrote down RYAN in block letters. She held it up to the camera. “I just think the tribe will be stronger without you. It’s not personal.” She folded the parchment and slipped it inside the urn before then returning to her seat.

“I’ll go tally the votes,” Jeff said. They were silent while he was gone, as they’d been instructed to be. He returned with the urn a couple of minutes later. “If you have a hidden immunity idol and you want to play it, now would be the time to do so.”

Alex knew that, on television, they’d be showing a close up of her, looking nervous, plus probably Ryan and, potentially, whoever actually had possession of the idol. She also knew that, on television, that moment would last a lot longer than it did in real life. The window closed quickly without anyone announcing they’d like to play an idol and Jeff nodded. “Once I’ve read the votes, the decision is final. The person voted out will be asked to leave the Tribal Council area immediately. I’ll read the votes.”

“First vote, Alex,” he said.

She felt her stomach start to churn.

“Second vote, Ryan. One vote Alex, one vote Ryan.”

She took a deep breath.

“Third vote, Alex. Two votes Alex, one vote Ryan.”

Alex chewed on her bottom lip. This wasn’t supposed to end this way.

“Fourth vote, Ryan. We’re tied, two votes Alex, two votes Ryan, two votes left.”

Alex allowed herself another deep breath.

“Fifth vote, Ryan. That’s three votes Ryan, two votes Alex, one vote left.”

She realized she had no easy way to tell if this was a tie vote, because she wasn’t watching this on television and there wasn’t more than five minutes left in the episode. She crossed her fingers and shut her eyes.

“Sixth vote, and the third person voted off of Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty 3, Ryan. Ryan, please bring me your torch.”

Alex opened her eyes in surprise and felt the stress leave her body.  _ Oh thank God, _ she thought to herself as she watched Ryan bring his torch to Jeff.

He put the ceremonial snuffer over it. “Ryan, the tribe has spoken. It’s time for you to go,” Jeff said, removing the tool to show an extinguished torch, still smoking.

Ryan waved. “Good game. Good luck, guys.”

They all waved back.

“Well, now that you’ve been to Tribal, I know you don’t want to come back. Grab your torches and head out. G’night.”

The walk back to camp was relatively quiet. It was clear that Emi had voted with Ryan and that Francis had voted with Becky and Matteo and Alex, so it made things a little bit awkward. But still, Alex had survived. Her alliance had held. She had nothing to complain about.

 

***

 

_ Day 11 _

While things had been a little stilted with Emi, Alex had taken her aside and told her that she totally understood that she’d been in an alliance with Ryan and it was cool and not to worry.

“It’s kind of hard not to worry when you’re the only person left who voted against the group,” Emi had sighed.

“Don’t worry. We just need to keep winning immunity until the merge,” Alex had grinned.

They were called in last at the reward challenge and Alex smiled over at Margarita who looked relieved. The feeling from that interaction didn’t last long, though, because they were told to drop their buffs. Alex was, understandably, not pleased with that turn of events, having just solidified her alliance. More than anything else, she was angry with herself for not thinking about a tribe swap as one of the possibilities.

“Brains, Brawn and Beauty are no more,” Jeff said, bringing out a platter of wrapped buffs. “You’re now going to be Viribus, the purple tribe, Forma, the Orange tribe and Solert, the blue tribe,” he said, coming around to everyone. “Don’t open them until I say so,” Jeff reminded them.

Alex shut her eyes and picked one at random.

“All right, everyone,” Jeff said, back in his spot. “Reveal.”

Alex torn open her package to reveal a purple buff. She immediately looked next to her at Matteo, who had pulled a blue buff, as had Becky.

“Head over to your new mats,” Jeff said, attempting to herd the 15 people who were standing around looking at everyone else’s colours.

Alex briefly hugged Becky and whispered to her to find the damn idol, before hugging Matteo and moving to the purple mat, watching Emi and Francis chatting with people on the orange mat. She blinked.  _ Orange _ , she thought,  _ where’s Margarita? _ She looked over and saw Margarita now on the blue mat, with Matteo and Becky.

She had no allies with her, not even Margarita, and soon realized, as she was introducing herself to everyone, that she was surrounded by Brawn members.  _ Oh, this is so very bad, _ she thought to herself.  _ So very, very bad. _

Jeff stood there, hands on his hips, grinning widely. “All right, let’s see what we’ve got. On Viribus, the purple tribe, we have three former Brawn members, Aishe, Brandon and Peter, plus one former Brain, Alex, plus one former Beauty, Gabe.” He looked over at orange next. “On Forma, we have two former Beauty members, Lincoln and Nicole, plus two former Brains, Francis and Emi, and one former Brawn, Joe.” His eyes came to rest on the blue mat. “Finally, on Solert, we have two former Beauty members, Margarita and Noah, two former Brains, Becky and Matteo and one former Brawn, Roxanne.”

He smiled. “Head back to camp — purple is Brawn’s camp, orange is Beauty’s camp, blue is Brains’ camp. We’ll see you tomorrow for immunity.”

Alex shot a look towards Matteo and he nodded and gave the okay sign. She gave him a weak smile, but Margarita saw it. She nodded at her. “Gabe” she mouthed, then gave a thumbs up. Alex looked back at the tall, dark-skinned man and then nodded back at Margarita. Becky waved and she waved back as she started heading back to the Brawn camp.

The camp was sad. There was no tarp, just intricately woven palm fronds that were already in dire need of repair. No fishing gear. But, they did have chickens. The rooster was gone and so was one of the hens, but two hens — and a handful of eggs — remained.

The new Viribus tribe spent the evening getting to know Alex and Gabe and they spent the evening getting to know everyone else on the tribe. As Alex tried to fall asleep that night, she realized how quickly the game can change, and was quite thankful she had an extra vote in her bag.

 

***

 

_ Day 15 _

Alex and Gabe had both avoided elimination by the simple fact that the orange tribe, Forma, had come in third in the last immunity challenge, which had been grueling. Had it not been for having three Brawns on their tribe, they might well have finished last. As it was, the new Viribus tribe finished first and it had been a close call for second place between Forma and Solert.

The two of them had grown close quickly, since they both knew they had to work together against the Brawns and Alex had shared with him the details of her advantage. In the event that they went to tribal, the goal would be to sway Aishe to their side and vote out Brandon, if possible, but if not, well, that’s what the advantage was for.

Alex had tried to keep it together, but the truth of the matter was that it was hard and she was feeling it. She’d broken down in a confessional the day after the tribe swap. “I’m not sure if I can do this all by myself,” she’d said, crying openly. “My allies are elsewhere and I don’t know if they’re going to be safe, but I don’t know if I’ll be safe, either. This swap might be the worst thing possible for me.” She was in full-on survival mode after that, spending time being social with all the Brawns, trying to feel out their intentions, their goals, trying to see if there were any cracks to exploit. It was exhausting and she wasn’t sleeping well at all.

Still, a water reward challenge had allowed Alex to excel and they’d won comfort items — pillows, blankets, even a hammock. She’d called dibs on the hammock as soon as they’d been given the items, aware that it was probably not going to endear her to them. But, when she was thinking rationally, she realized that she wasn’t going to make inroads with them. She was the outsider. The weakest non-Brawn. And even though it had been her skills in the water that had won the reward challenge, if they lost, they were definitely going to be more inclined to keep Gabe, who looked more like them in that he had bulging muscles and liked to work out, than she did.

So when they arrived at another land-based immunity challenge, Alex nearly wept. She could tell this was going to be the end of the line if they lost. It didn’t inspire her with confidence when Jeff explained the challenge. One pair of two would be tied together at the leg, and have to navigate a series of obstacles. Once done, another tribe member would solve a puzzle to unlock five balls. Finally, the last member would use the five balls to hit five targets, which would release a tribal flag.

“I know I don’t have to tell you that the last tribe to finish gets a date with me at Tribal Council tonight, where someone will be the fifth person voted out. I’ll give you a few minutes to strategize, then we’ll get started.”

Viribus decided to sit out Aishe, electing to field Brandon and Peter together for the obstacle course portion. Alex would be on the puzzle and Gabe would be trying to hit the targets. Alex did not feel good about it. She thought she and Aishe might make for a good team on the obstacle course, but, of course, being a Brain, she was overruled because they needed “someone smart to do the puzzle”.

Alex was less than thrilled by her assignment, particularly as she would be up against Margarita and Francis.

“Okay, we have Aishe and Becky sitting out. For Viribus, we have Brandon and Peter on the course together, Alex on the puzzle and Gabe on the targets. For Forma, we have Nicole and Emi on the course, Francis on the puzzle and Lincoln on the targets. Finally, for Solert, we have Matteo and Noah on the course, Margarita on the puzzle and Roxanne on the targets. Survivors ready?” he asked, raising his left arm. “Go!” he shouted, raising his right arm as he dropped the left.

From the moment the obstacle course began, Nicole and Emi gained a huge lead. Both were nimble and small and crawling under things didn’t slow them down, not even the dual belly-crawl underneath the netting. The other two tribes, with their large, muscled men going through the course, did not fare as well. Nicole and Emi tagged Francis in before either of the other teams had even reached the midway point on the course and he started in on the word puzzle. Alex was too far away to see his letters, but she chuckled to herself as Margarita, who was in the middle, was getting herself a fairly clear look at Francis’ puzzle.

“Hey Sunshine,” she called out, quietly. “Nice view?”

“It’s phenomenal, thanks,” she grinned back.

Alex returned her attention to her team. Brandon and Peter were falling behind on the netting portion, after having gotten stuck on the digging portion. She sighed. “It’s been real, Margarita. Good luck.”

The other woman turned. “What are you talking about?”

“My tribe is going to lose and I’m sure it’s going to be me.”

“C’mon, Alex, don’t think like that. You belong here. Fight for it. Right?”

She shrugged. “With three Brawns? It’s me or it’s Gabe. So…” She spread out her hands. “I got nothin’.”

Margarita looked at her squarely. “I’ll do what I can, okay?”

“You can’t do anything,” Alex said, confused.

“I’m trying to help you,” she laughed. “Just… keep your eyes open, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, “but I don’t know how that’s going to help.”

Margarita rolled her eyes. “For a nerd, you’re really not that smart.” Her team members came at her and tagged her in. She started doing her puzzle in plain view of Alex.

_ Oh, she’s going to let you cheat off her, Danvers. Way to use your brain, dummy, _ she reprimanded herself. Her team finally arrived just as Forma won immunity. Alex tried to put the noise out of her head and focus on the puzzle pieces. She wasn’t even thinking, she was just replicating Margarita’s puzzle.

“Looks like Alex is copying directly from Margarita’s puzzle!” Jeff pointed out. “Solert is ahead, but is it smart to leave it all to the targets? Weird strategy by Solert.”

Margarita finished the puzzle and unlocked the balls for Roxanne, who must have been a softball pitcher or something in college because she went four for five on her first attempts.

“Solert is one target from winning immunity! Viribus, you gotta pick it up! This is for immunity!”

Alex finally pushed the last piece of the word puzzle into place — EIGHTEEN PEOPLE THIRTY NINE DAYS ONE SURVIVOR — and unlocked the balls for Gabe. Gabe missed three of his targets and was in the midst of retrieving the balls when Roxanne nailed her last remaining target. “SOLERT WINS IMMUNITY!” Jeff shouted, hands raised.

Alex sighed, shoulders sagging.

“Keep working for it,” Margarita said, as she passed her by. “Don’t give up.”

“Thanks, Sunshine,” she said.

She waved to Matteo and Becky and trudged back to camp. It was going to be a long, exhausting afternoon of scrambling.

Aishe was immovable. She and Brandon and Peter were all set to remain “Brawn Strong”, as they put it. Alex couldn’t blame them. One of their members, Joe, had been the sole Brawn on the new Forma tribe and he’d been voted out at the last elimination. Surely if Solert went to Tribal Council, Roxanne, another Brawn, would be the easy vote. So of course they’d stick together on Viribus, hoping that Roxanne had made inroads on Solert, for the forthcoming merge, whenever that was. Alex guessed it would either be at twelve people or at ten people. They were at fourteen and would be at thirteen after tonight, so a minimum of four more days before a potential merge and possibly as many as ten days. That was a long time. She snorted at herself.  _ What are you doing, thinking so far down the road? You’re probably not even going to be here for another ten hours, much less ten days! _

Alex had the extra vote, of course. She could force a 3-3 tie, but on a revote, it would be Gabe’s vote against Aishe and Peter, if she and Gabe targeted Brandon, so she’d be going home anyway. There just wasn’t a clever way out of this, not without a Brawn voting with them.

So Alex started packing up her bag as sunset approached and she frowned as she noticed something inside her bag that she didn’t recognize. The other tribe members were on the beach, so she pulled the parchment to the top of her bag and opened it.

“THIS IS THE SURVIVOR LEGACY ADVANTAGE WHICH MAY BE USED FOR IMMUNITY WHEN THERE ARE 14 PLAYERS LEFT IN THE GAME OR 7 PLAYERS LEFT IN THE GAME. IT MAY NOT BE USED BY THE INDIVIDUAL WHO FOUND IT. IT MAY ONLY BE USED BY SOMEONE TO WHOM IT HAS BEEN GIVEN FREELY.”

Alex’s eyebrows flew up.  _ Holy shit, holy shit! _ She skimmed through the rest of the text. It was, essentially, an immunity idol except that the person who found it had to give it to someone else. This advantage was literally only good for tonight or in a couple of weeks from now. She turned it over and she saw Margarita as the first name on it, followed by her own.  _ Thank you, Sunshine,  _ she thought to herself. Margarita had just bought her another three days in the game, no doubt thanks to the influence of Matteo and Becky. She smiled and packed it into her backpack before calming down and putting on a dour face. She had to look, after all, as though she was going home.

That night, at Tribal Council, Alex and Gabe voted against Brandon, who seemed to be the one calling the shots. When Jeff returned with the urn and asked if anyone had a hidden immunity idol, Alex looked around and stood, noting with satisfaction how Brandon, Peter and Aishe’s faces fell.

“Jeff?” she said, walking up to him. “I have a legacy advantage and I’d like to play it for myself tonight.”

Jeff nodded and accepted the parchment. “This is the legacy advantage which states that it can only be used with 14 players left in the game or 7 players left in the game. There are 14 players currently left in the game, so the use of the legacy advantage is permitted. Any votes cast for Alex tonight will not count.”

“Damn,” muttered Brandon.

“First vote, Alex, does not count,” Jeff said. “Alex, does not count,” he continued. He pulled out another vote. “Alex. Does not count.”

Alex was grinning widely and high-fived Gabe.

Jeff pulled out another vote. “Brandon. One vote Brandon, one vote left.” He pulled out the last vote. “Sixth person voted out, Brandon. Brandon, please bring me your torch.”

“Well-played, guys,” Brandon said. “Good luck.” He grabbed his torch and Alex watched it get snuffed. She was safe for three more days.

“Some good strategic play there by Alex,” Jeff commented, “but the tribe is clearly fractured. What are you going to do about it? Grab your stuff and head out. G’night.”

 

***

 

_ Day 24 _

By some miracle, three more days turned into nine more days. Solert lost immunity next, but Roxanne was sent home, given that she was the lone Brawn on a tribe made up of Noah and Margarita from Beauty and Becky and Matteo from Brains. Then Forma lost immunity next, sending Emi home. While Alex was sad to see a Brain go home, and it meant that Francis had flipped to align with the two Beauty members on Forma, part of her was happy to see someone who’d voted against her get voted out. Still, it also meant that she had to be on guard. The Brains looked to be working well with the Beauties to eliminate the Brawns, but so far, no Beauties had been eliminated since the tribe swap. Upon the merge, it was entirely likely that Beauty would start picking off any remaining Brawns and then the Brains.

She did the math in a confessional. “So like, if we lose today and we presume the merge is tomorrow or the day after — at ten people — then we either go in to the merge with five Beauties, four Brains and one Brawn, or we go with four Beauties, four Brains and two Brawns.” She considered. “Or they vote me out and we have three remaining Brains, five Beauties and two Brawns,” she said, counting on her fingers. She looked up into the camera. “I might have to vote Gabe out tonight so he doesn’t reconnect with Margarita and the others.” She thought for a moment. “I have to convince Aishe and Peter that Gabe needs to go because five Beauties is just asking for trouble.” She rubbed at her face with her palm. “Or, you know, we could win immunity. God, I hope it’s a water challenge.”

It was not, in fact, a water challenge. Alex cursed silently to herself as she looked at the play area. Since Forma only had three people, they could expect to sit someone from each of Solert and Viribus. Matteo and Gabe had sat out the prior reward challenge, so they’d be back in and Alex correctly guessed that Becky would be sitting, so they decided to sit Aishe.

The challenge was going to be rough. Six people at a time, two from each tribe, would go out and dig up a bag buried in a section of sand. The goal would be to then return to their team’s mat. Touching the bag and the mat at the same time would score a point. The first two tribes to touch their mat while touching the bag score points and the first two tribes to three points win immunity. If a tribe got to three points before the other two, they would sit out and the subsequent rounds would consist of just two tribes.

For the first round, all three women were playing along with Gabe from Viribus, Lincoln from Forma and Matteo from Solert.

Alex briefly spoke with Gabe to strategize. He’d stay at the midfield while she dug and would attempt to power his way through to the mat, with Alex holding back the others as she could.

“Survivors ready?” Jeff called, left arm in the air. “Go!” he called, his right arm shooting up and left arm lowering.

Alex ran flat-out across the sand to the section Jeff was standing next to and started flinging sand as she dug for the bag. She was vaguely aware that Margarita was nearby, but didn’t trust herself to look at her and be distracted. She kept digging. It was Nicole from Forma who came up with the bag and Alex leapt up and ran for her. She made contact and brought her down as Lincoln attempted to intercept Gabe, to no avail. He was just too large and strong. Matteo snagged the bag and tossed it easily to Margarita who went running towards the mat. Alex released Nicole and charged for Margarita, colliding with her and pulling her down with her. She landed hard on her back, Margarita on top of her, the bag still in Margarita’s arms. Alex could feel it brushing against her forearms, but she refused to let go. She’d have to let Gabe worry about the bag as she worried about covering her man. She tightened her grip around Margarita’s waist. “Nuh-uh, Sunshine.”

“Let me go!” she growled, twisting violently, grinding an elbow into Alex’s chest.

She grunted at the contact. “Fuck,” she breathed, not loosening her grip.

“Matteo!” Margarita called, but, from what Alex could tell, he’d been brought down by Gabe. That left Lincoln and Nicole free to grab the bag from Margarita. The force of it brought Alex and Margarita up to their knees and Alex took advantage of the situation. She pushed Margarita into the sand, face-first and gave chase, easily grabbing the bag once the Forma team had to surrender it, and jogging back to her mat.

“Forma and Viribus score!” Jeff cried, arms raised. “And if that first round is any indication, this is going to be a difficult challenge.”

Round two was the six guys, while Alex, Nicole and Margarita watched and waited. It was brutal in nature. While Francis, from Forma, dug for the bag, Lincoln prowled around the midway point like a football player. Gabe did the same, while Peter started digging. Both Noah and Matteo dug for Solert, probably relying on speed instead of brute strength to help them score.

“Should have known you’d play dirty,” Margarita teased her, as they watched their teammates.

“All’s fair in Survivor, isn’t it?” Alex responded, innocently.

“I suppose it is.” She looked at Alex with a smirk. “Speaking of, how’s your boob doing?”

Alex blushed beet red and was glad that something was finally happening on the field to prevent her from having to answer. Francis had found the bag first and was instantly tackled by Peter and Noah, while Lincoln came running up to pull on the bag. Gabe easily wrapped his arms around the smaller man and hoisted him into the air. Peter came away with the bag while Francis lunged for his leg, causing him to topple forward and lose the bag. Gabe tossed Lincoln aside and scooped up the bag and was maybe ten feet away when Noah collided with him, bringing him down with an audible thump at an awkward angle. Noah tugged on the bag and stole it out of Gabe’s hands in the confusion and managed to just barely tag the mat before releasing the bag for another tribe to score a point.

Jeff raised his arms. “Solert with the first point in this challenge! Looking for another point!”

Alex was looking at Gabe, who was still down. “Jeff!” she shouted. “Gabe’s hurt.”

Jeff whipped his head around. “TIME!” he called, heading towards Gabe.

“Gabe, it’s Jeff, are you okay?”

The big man grimaced. “It’s my knee.”

“Medical!” Jeff shouted.

The medical team arrived and, over the next half hour or so, they evaluated Gabe and decided that the tackle had ruptured Gabe’s anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. They’d witnessed it swelling and his range of motion was severely limited.

“Dr. Joe,” Jeff said, crouching by Gabe, “what does this mean?”

“Well, Jeff,” he replied, “this would likely indicate a severe tear in the knee’s ACL. The swelling indicates that the ligament is bleeding into the joint. This is not going to resolve on its own.”

Gabe grunted. “I don’t want to go,” he said.

“Dr. Joe, is it possible for Gabe to stay in?”

He shook his head. “The ACL repair will require surgery and he’s clearly in a great deal of pain. Without examination by an orthopedic surgeon, this isn’t going to get any better.”

“So, to be clear, you’re pulling him from the game?”

“That’s correct, Jeff.”

“No!” Gabe said. “I want to stay in.”

Margarita knelt nearby. “Dude, you gotta take care of yourself here, okay?”

He looked over at her, his face contorting with pain. “I want to stay.”

Jeff looked up at the doctor. “What happens if you don’t pull him?”

Joe shrugged. “Gabe will be unable to walk. He’ll be in a great deal of pain, and once that fades, he still won’t be able to support himself.” He shook his head. “If it were an MCL sprain rather than a suspected ACL tear, I’d be more comfortable, but Gabe is facing a good 8-12 months of recovery as it is.”

Margarita took Gabe’s hand in both of hers. “Go. They’re gonna take you anyway. Just go. It’s fine. We’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. I promise.”

Gabe squeezed her hand back. “Win this thing.”

She nodded. “Take care of yourself.”

With a deep sigh and tears streaming down his cheeks, Gabe nodded. “Okay.” He took a breath. “Okay, doc. Let’s do it.”

Alex shook her head. She’d needed to get rid of Gabe, but to go out this way? To be forced out due to an injury? She’d be crying, too, and not from the pain. This was the culmination of a dream that had started the moment she’d seen the very first episode of the show. From her discussions with people on the island, most of them were big fans as well. To go out like that… She sighed.

They called in a helicopter and evacuated him and Jeff had them line up on their mats.

“Well, that’s it for this challenge,” he said. “No Tribal tonight, no vote. You can all grab your stuff and head back to camp.”

“Sorry about Gabe,” Alex offered to Margarita, as they picked up their stuff. “I know you were close,” she said, kneeling down to lace up a sneaker.

“Thanks,” she said, genuinely. “Oh. And Alex?”

She looked up from tying her shoe.

“Sorry about your boob.” She winked and walked off with the rest of the Solert tribe, leaving Alex to blush for a moment before she could finish putting her shoes on.

 

***

 

_ Day 25 _

It was better for her game for Beauty to be down to four people, for sure, but Alex still didn’t like how Gabe had gone out the prior day. She imagined Noah, who’d made the tackle that had injured Gabe, felt even worse, since he was an original Beauty member as well.

She animatedly talked about the numbers in her confessional that morning.

“Okay, so I needed to get Gabe out if we lost because he was the last lone Beauty member,” she said, “but I didn’t want for him to go out like that.” She sighed. “It does help my game, though. If the merge is today or tomorrow, and I think it is, then we’ll merge with four Beauties, four Brains and two Brawns.” She considered. “I’m not sure how Emi got voted out on Forma, so maybe Francis flipped. Can we trust him, or will he align with Beauty? Are we really walking into a merge with four Beauties but five votes, compared to three Brains and two Brawns? Maybe the Brains will need to cooperate with the Brawns to take out Francis and the Beauties.” She sighed. “I just don’t know yet. I need to know what’s going on over there, I need to talk to Matteo and Becky. I wonder if Becky ever found the idol?”

A couple of hours later, they were instructed to bring all their personal belongings and get on a boat.

“Merge time!” Peter cheered, as he stuffed things into his bag and grabbed his canteen.

“Merge feast!” Aishe laughed.

Alex had completely forgotten about the feast and her mouth started to water.

The three of them got on to the boat, which turned on its motors and started out on its way to their destination.

It ended up being the Solert beach, which Alex was super psyched about. Their boat came in at the same time as the Forma boat and the Solert tribe gathered on the beach, waving excitedly. Alex was really looking forward to catching up with Matteo and Becky. As they disembarked, each tribe got a large basket of food and a heavy cooler. They waded in from the boats and were met with hugs and introductions. Alex got hugged by Matteo and Becky and Francis in their Brains reunion and, once the food was put down by the shelter, even Margarita came over.

“Hey nerd,” she said, with a grin.

“Hi, Sunshine,” she replied, smiling back.

Everyone made their introductions and then they laid out the food for the feast. There was cold beer and soda, there was wine, there were sandwiches and wraps and fruits and cheeses, there were cakes and pies and assorted sweets. The ten of them sat not far from the shelter, just in the shade, eating and laughing and drinking and gorging themselves. Alex had sat herself in between Matteo and Becky and both were letting her know what was up on their end. Once the tribe swap had happened, Becky and Matteo had naturally stuck together, while Noah and Margarita had done the same. Of course, during their one trip to Tribal Council, it had been an easy, 4-1 vote in which the two Brains and two Beauties had voted off Roxanne, the lone Brawn. Becky had, eventually, found the immunity idol, letting Matteo in on her find. Meanwhile, the two had learned that Noah was part of a “bro” alliance on the Beauty tribe, so Margarita didn’t have super strong ties to him. Her main ally had been Gabe, who had been ferreting information to her about the “bro” alliance while voting with her anyway. Alex took the information in, as she ate her fourth, or perhaps fifth, sandwich. She looked down across the picnic area to where Margarita and Noah sat, reunited with Lincoln and Nicole.

“Okay, we should be more social and stuff,” Becky said, quietly. “And keep an eye out for an idol or a clue.”

“Good call on both counts,” she agreed.

The ten of them spent the afternoon laughing and talking, as they grazed on leftovers and finished the copious amounts of alcohol, before they came up with a new tribe name and created their flag. Their new flag and buffs were red, so they painted the tribe name in black across the top:

SOLFORBUS

It had been a great day, though Alex was completely wiped out. Eating so much had not been a great plan and drinking as much as she had was an even worse plan. She drank two canteens of water to try to counteract the hangover she felt coming on and then headed to the shelter. None of the comfort items were over yet, though production had promised to bring those and the fishing gear over from the other camps. So it was another night in her original shelter. She selected a spot on the outside edge, near Matteo, in case she needed to use the facilities or possibly be sick, before taking off her hoodie and using it as a blanket, with her right bicep under her head. She couldn’t wait for the comfort items to arrive the next day.

As she was just starting to fall asleep, Margarita showed up and, to Alex’s horror, she crawled into the small space between the two Brains.

“Don’t mind me,” she grinned in apology. “Matteo’s been my cuddle buddy.”

“Oh,” Alex said, simply, unsure why she had a sudden flare of emotion at that revelation.

Margarita tilted her head to one side. “What’s the matter, jealous?” she challenged, with a smile.

Alex’s eyes widened. “Uh, no, why, uh, why — why, why would I be jealous?”

Margarita looked at her curiously. “Never mind,” she said, an odd look on her face. She grinned, and Alex could tell it was forced. “I was just teasing.” She paused, looking at Alex once more. “Feel free to curl up with us if you get cold,” she said, and promptly rolled over on to her right side to nestle into Matteo’s embrace.

To her consternation, Alex  _ was _ jealous. She was pretty sure Margarita was gay, but who knew for sure? And Matteo certainly wasn’t going to complain about having the gorgeous woman snuggle up to him at night. She suddenly wondered about Matteo’s allegiances, if the two of them had been cuddling together every night since the tribe swap.

Out of spite, Alex turned over on to her left side, refusing to curl up with anyone, and wished for her hammock and blanket. Of course, she woke up in the night, shivering due to the cool air coming off the ocean, but still determined not to give in to Margarita’s suggestion. Logically, Alex knew that it was surely her jealousy fueling anger towards Margarita and Matteo. She knew it was stupid. She knew that people cuddled together at night, literally for warmth, and that it didn’t mean anything.

_ Your stupid attraction to her is affecting your game, idiot,  _ she thought to herself, harshly, as she continued to shiver.

Then, she felt the shelter shift and a warm arm slipped itself across her waist, resting a hand on her stomach over her t-shirt. A pair of legs molded themselves to the backs of her own and she could feel the warmth through her khakis. And, she swallowed, she could feel the heat from the other woman’s breasts pressing against her back. It wasn’t that Alex hadn’t had girlfriends, hadn’t slept with women. She’d been out for years and had had serious relationships. Her attraction to Margarita was unexpected, though, and she knew that her feelings could cost her the game. Jealousy, desire, none of it had any place in Survivor.

“Should have snuggled up with me in the first place, nerd,” she whispered and pulled her in even closer.

_ Then again, am I really going to complain? _ Alex quirked a smile to herself and covered Margarita’s hand with her own, enjoying the closeness. She was asleep in moments.

 

***

 

_ Day 26 _

It was a challenge day. On their way over, Alex fell into step with Becky and asked her about the connection between Margarita and Matteo.

She shrugged. “We’ve been voting with Noah and Margarita,” she said, “but they don’t know about our idol.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asked. “Margarita and Matteo seem pretty close.”

“You think?”

“Well, there’s the matter of them curling up together at night.”

Becky laughed. “Have you  _ seen _ her? She’s tiny and gets cold easily. I bet she used to cuddle up to Gabe on Beauty.”

Alex considered that. “I guess,” she said. “I’m not convinced, though.”

“Well, we’ll find out after the next immunity challenge when we all go back to Tribal, I guess.”

Alex nodded. “We should take out a Beauty,” she said.

“Margarita?” Becky assumed.

She shook her head. “A strong guy. Noah or Lincoln. Don’t want anyone to go on a run of individual immunities, after all.”

“They probably think we’ll work to eliminate Brawn entirely before turning on Beauty,” she said, “so we might get in a good blindside.”

Alex nodded. “But we can definitely use Brawn to our advantage and get Peter and Aishe to vote with us.”

“You think so?”

“I can sell it, I think.”

“Cool. I’ll talk to Matteo if you want to talk to them.”

“What about Francis?” Alex asked.

Becky shrugged. “I’m not sure where he stands. I’d love to know more about how Emi got voted out.”

“Me too,” Alex admitted.

“I’ll talk to Francis, too,” Becky said. “It would be nice to know if we can all rely on remaining loyal to Brains, or if we need to change things up.”

“Sounds good,” Alex said. “I wonder what today’s reward is?”

“Oh god, I don’t know if I can handle more food yet,” Becky said, putting her hand on her stomach.

As it happened, the challenge wasn’t a reward. It was the first individual immunity challenge. It was a very simple challenge. You’d be given a ladder to climb up a tall pole, about ten feet high, with small, delineating lines cut into it every foot or so. The last person to remain clinging to the pole would win immunity. The individual immunity necklace was, as always, a large, ornately decorated thing. “This is what you covet now,” Jeff said, patting the post on which the necklace was hooked. “We’ll draw for spots and then get started.”

Alex looked at her tribemates as production came in to do the draw for who got which post. She wasn’t particularly worried about most of the guys, as too much weight was never an advantage in this challenge. Winners of these kinds of challenges tended to be leaner than muscular, wiry instead of buff, tiny instead of big. With that in mind, she considered Aishe, the former Brawn member, to be the biggest obstacle to her winning this challenge. And maybe Francis, too, depending on what kind of a stance he chose. Even though men were typically stronger in the upper body, Alex knew that, like in rock-climbing, the trick was to rely on the legs. She looked at the posts a bit more carefully and made the decision to remove her shoes, too. Her feet wouldn’t enjoy the pain, but she’d have a surer grip in bare feet.

Soon enough, the draw was done and everyone was assigned a post. Production worked with them to get them up the pole before removing the ladders. Clad in just her bra and boyshorts, Alex wrapped her powerful legs around the pole and hooked her ankles together, then hugged herself to the pole, her right hand gripping her left forearm to lock herself in. Relying on smaller muscles like fingers and toes at this early point would just result in fatigue. She knew that if she got tired of this position, she could adjust her legs and wedge the sides of her feet into one of the crevices, but she hoped it would be a while before she got to that point.

From below them, Jeff walked the length of the posts and nodded. “This challenge is now on.”

From her position somewhere in the middle, she could only see Noah to her right, who was already twitching and Francis, to her left, who seemed perfectly comfortable. He was in a squat position, arms locked similarly to Alex’s. She wasn’t happy to see how comfortable he seemed, not without knowing his allegiances.

Noah dropped first. He’d never really gotten comfortable and the large man sat down on the nearby bench, cursing the entire time.

“Just like that, Noah’s out. You gotta dig deep,” Jeff said, “this is for immunity. Win this and you are safe at Tribal Council, guaranteed a one in nine shot at a million dollars.”

To her right, beyond where Noah had been, Aishe was perched on her post.  _ At least I can see my competition,  _ Alex thought to herself. With that, she closed her eyes and focused on the pleasant sensations — the sun shining down on her, warming her skin, the sounds of the nearby waves, birds chirping, the smell of the salt in the air. It didn’t matter to her that she was hanging on a pole. She could almost imagine she was on the beach at camp, about to go spear-fishing, with a mask, snorkel and fins.

She heard a thud, followed by a curse. “Matteo drops. We’re five minutes in and the two biggest guys are already out,” Jeff said.

Becky went next, followed by Lincoln and Peter.

“Ten minutes in and we’re down to five people: Aishe, Alex, Francis, Margarita and Nicole,” Jeff announced. “Alex and Francis haven’t moved an inch since this challenge began. Aishe looks solid, Margarita looks solid. Nicole is struggling…” She heard another thump. “She can’t recover. Nicole is out and we’re down to four.”

Alex knew this could go long.

“You’ve been up there for twenty minutes,” Jeff announced.

_ Sounds about right,  _ she thought to herself as she carefully switched arms, grasping her right forearm with her left hand, allowing her to extend and stretch her right arm.

“Alex making adjustments,” he said, “Aishe looking like she’s struggling a bit. Francis looks good, Margarita looks good.”

She closed her eyes again, picturing herself swimming through the coral reefs, imagining how good the cool water of the ocean would feel on her warm skin, how gorgeous the colours below the waves would be.

“Thirty minutes,” Jeff said. “Aishe’s been struggling,” he said, “and she’s slid more than halfway down her pole. Francis, Alex and Margarita are all looking good.”

Alex focused on her breath.  _ In… out… in… out… _

“Forty minutes,” Jeff interjected.

She switched arms again, carefully, slowly, not yet switching stances on the post, despite the fact her legs felt like they were on fire.  _ It’s just lactic acid,  _ she told herself.

“Alex making an adjustment,” he commented. “Feeling any pain?”

“I’m doing just fine, Jeff. Just a bit of lactic acidosis.”

“Nerd,” called a voice from her left, beyond Francis.

She grinned.

Aishe dropped shortly thereafter, leaving Alex, Margarita and Francis still on their posts.

“You’ve been up there for one hour,” he said, “and all three of you look rock-solid.”

Alex took the opportunity to switch arms again, returning to her original position. She rotated her shoulders and neck a bit, while wiggling her toes to try to get feeling back into them. A few minutes later, she heard a nearby thump.

“Without any warning at all, Francis is out, after nearly an hour and fifteen minutes. We’re down to two, Alex and Margarita.”

She turned to look over at Margarita. “How’s it going, Sunshine?”

“Just peachy,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I can stay up here all day,” she grinned.

“And I can stay up here all day plus a second longer than you,” she retorted.

“We’ve got some trash-talk going on here,” Jeff remarked, grinning.

“Suit yourself,” Alex said, resting her head against her pole. “I’m in no rush.” She was satisfied to not hear a reply from Margarita and smiled to herself.

“One hour and a half, 90 minutes,” Jeff said.

Alex took the opportunity to shift arms again.

“Alex makes another adjustment to her arms. Margarita is starting to look tired.”

“You look tired, Jeff,” she snapped.

“Ooh, someone’s getting cranky,” Alex called out.

“Bite me,” she barked.

Alex forced herself not to think about Margarita’s body and all the places she’d  _ like  _ to bite the other woman. Normally, she’d respond to that with something like “any preference as to where?” but she was determined not to let the other woman get to her. Hanging off a pole on a Fijian island, with immunity on the line, was  _ not  _ the optimal time to engage in flirtatious banter with a beautiful woman.

“Two hours,” Jeff said. “Alex has barely moved, while Margarita has come down a couple of notches.”

“Thanks for your witty commentary, Jeff,” Margarita shot.

“That’s what I’m here for,” he responded, jovially.

Alex enjoyed seeing Margarita frown at that and let it fuel her. Her thighs were screaming, she couldn’t feel her feet and the sun was getting hot.

“Alex,” Jeff said, “question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“You look totally comfortable. How are you doing it?”

“Just telling myself that the discomfort isn’t dangerous, while I try to imagine places I’d rather be,” she said.

“Like where?”

She smiled. “Like spear fishing with the fins and snorkel,” she said. “The coral reefs here are gorgeous.”

“So you’re just taking yourself out of this situation?”

“Sort of,” she admitted. “It’s kind of hard when you keep talking to me,” she grinned.

“Fair point,” he said. “Margarita?”

“What?”

“How have you gotten this far in the challenge?”

“I’m stubborn, Jeff.”

Everyone, even Alex, laughed.

“So you’re just that stubborn?”

“I’m the most stubborn person you’ll ever meet,” she said, “and I want immunity tonight.”

“I think you might have met your match,” Jeff said. “Alex is looking pretty good.” He considered. “Is there a reason you need immunity tonight?”

“As you’re so fond of saying, immunity is what you covet and is the only way to guarantee your advancement in this game.”

“That’s true,” he said, then lapsed back into silence.

After Jeff’s announcement of two hours and twenty minutes, but before he announced the two and a half hour mark, Alex heard a grunt from Margarita’s direction.

“You all right there, Sunshine?” she asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Uh huh,” she replied, shifting herself a bit.

“Some movement from Alex,” Jeff said. “Could this be what Margarita’s been waiting for?”

Alex was definitely feeling it. She couldn’t talk herself out of the pain anymore and her attempts to imagine herself elsewhere were no longer working. She clung tighter to the post and, with extreme care, moved her right leg off of the post, letting it hang down and restore the blood flow.

“This is the most movement from Alex we’ve seen in nearly two and a half hours,” Jeff said.

She wiggled her toes and flexed her leg and then wedged the side of her foot into the gap between sections, somewhere below her. Once she was certain it would hold her weight, she moved her left leg and stretched it out, too, before placing it into the same gap. She was effectively standing up straight and the fact that her blood was now properly flowing to all her limbs felt absolutely amazing.

“Alex has successfully transitioned to a new position,” he said, “while Margarita is more than halfway down the post.”

“Give it up,” Alex called out.

“Never.”

They made it to three hours before Alex’s legs started to shake. Margarita was almost all the way down the pole. She was struggling, the orange shirt she wore was soaked with sweat.

Alex carefully tried to stretch out her leg, but her movement caused her to lose her balance. She rapidly slid down the pole, uncontrollably, before she was able to clutch it tightly enough to stop moving.

“Alex loses control and moves more than halfway down before managing to stop again. That couldn’t have felt good. The wood is rough.”

“You’re not kidding, Jeff,” Alex said, through gritted teeth, certain she’d left skin from her stomach and hands somewhere up the post. She’d found purchase with her toes, but it wasn’t sustainable. Before she knew it, she’d lost her grip again and she dropped to the ground.

“Alex is out, Margarita wins immunity!” Jeff said, raising his hands.

From her position on the ground, Alex looked over and watched Margarita carefully clamber down to the ground. She was oblivious to the applause from the rest of the tribe as she stood and walked over to her. “Good game,” she said, aiming to high-five the other woman.

Margarita was radiant, her smile huge, her dimples on display. “Good game,” she said, hugging her tightly before they both walked back to the tribe.

Alex watched as Margarita accepted the immunity necklace from Jeff, clapping for her with a sort of sense of pride. She was happy for the other woman and was glad it was Margarita if it wasn’t her.

They all headed back to camp, a day and a half of scrambling and strategy awaiting them before meeting up with Jeff for Tribal Council the following night, where someone would become the first member of the jury.

 

***

 

“You think I’m allied with Margarita?!” Matteo said indignantly.

Alex kind of shrugged and Becky looked sheepish. “Well, you guys are pretty close at night,” Becky mentioned.

“It’s for warmth!” he laughed. “I promise you, I’m Brains ‘till the end. Us here. The final three.”

Alex looked at Becky and they shrugged. “Okay,” said Becky. “So what do you think we need to do next?”

“Well, we have to get rid of a Beauty,” Matteo said, as the three of them sat in the shallows, using sand to scrub themselves to some semblance of clean.

“That’s what we were thinking,” said Becky. “Have you talked to Francis?”

“Not yet. You?”

“Us either,” said Alex. “We need to know how Emi went out.”

“Yeah, was he in on it or what?” Matteo asked.

“So we need to figure out if Francis is with us and, if he is, if we can count on him,” Becky said. “Then, we have to convince both Brawns to vote with us.”

“Yeah, but what’s the advantage for them?” Alex asked.

“They don’t have any more of an advantage for voting with Beauty over Brains,” Matteo reasoned. “Either way, they’re bottom two in a six-person alliance.”

Becky hummed at that as she grabbed a handful of sandy mud and proceeded to scrape it across her left shoulder, bicep and arm.

Alex nodded. “That’s a good point. Neither tribe can offer them much.”

“Unless we bring up the idol and the advantage?” Becky asked.

“Ooh, maybe just the idol,” Matteo said. “You don’t want to give them all the information possible, in case they go over to Beauty to leverage it.”

“Right,” Becky agreed. “Okay, I’m going to go talk to Francis now, while he’s alone,” she said, spotting him on the beach. She stood and waded towards him.

Alex looked over at Matteo. “So you and Margarita aren’t a thing? Not a showmance?” she teased.

“I’ll have you know, I have a girlfriend and I love her very much,” he said. He peered into one of the nearby cameras. “Did you get that?” he laughed. “Nah, we just get along okay and she steals my body heat in the middle of the night.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’m trusting you here, dude.”

He gave her a look. “What about you? Do  _ you _ have a thing with Margarita?”

Her eyebrows rose practically to her hairline. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he said, quietly, “do you have an alliance with her?”

“Absolutely not,” she said. “Do you think I would have stayed on that post for three hours, fighting her for immunity, if she and I had an alliance?”

He shrugged.

“I’ve spent like ten minutes talking to her total in the last three weeks.”

He shrugged again. “You call her Sunshine.”

“That’s what’s on her t-shirt!” laughed Alex.

“She calls you nerd.”

“I’m on the Brains tribe. She called me that in that very first challenge where she accused us of cheating! You were standing right there!”

Matteo grinned and submerged himself briefly to rinse off the sand. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much… but I trust you, Alex.”

She splashed him, good-naturedly, but her mind was racing. Her feelings for Margarita were becoming obvious to those who knew her, even if they couldn’t quite pin it down. Matteo was confusing her attraction to Margarita with a cross-tribe alliance, which was more dangerous than anything else.  _ To hell with it, _ she thought to herself.

“I promise I don’t have an alliance with her,” she said. “But…”

“But?” he asked.

“She’s cute.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” he said. “And?”

She looked at him. “Yeah,  _ I’ve _ noticed she’s cute.”

He paused and then he got it. “Oh. OH! Oh. Okay. Got it,” he said.

She shrugged.

“Does anyone else know that?”

“You’re the only person I’ve said anything to and I’m sure it’s just a stupid crush, but I wanted you to know that. It’s not that I’m allied with her, it’s that I think she’s so smart and she’s tough and she’s just… beautiful. She’s so beautiful.”

Matteo chuckled. “Oh man, you have it bad.”

“She’s on the damn Beauty tribe!” Alex argued, blushing.

“Well, at least now I know I can trust you,” he said.

“Good,” she said. “Oh, and hey, thanks to you and Becky, I guess, for getting her to give me that legacy advantage.”

He frowned. “The what now?”

“I was going to get voted off last week. It was going to be me or Gabe and I ended up with a legacy advantage that couldn’t be used by the person who found it, which was apparently Margarita.” She paused. “Wait, did she not talk to you about that?”

He shook his head. “I mean, I would have asked her to play it for you, but I didn’t know she had it.”

“Maybe Becky?”

“Or,” he said, “maybe someone’s got a crush on you.” He grinned widely.

Alex blushed furiously and just splashed him again.

 

***

 

Production had finally delivered their comfort items and their fishing gear. Alex pounced on the hammock and grabbed a blanket and claimed dibs, offering to hold a clinging-to-a-pole contest to anyone who dared challenge her.

“That include me?” Margarita asked, causing the tribe to laugh.

“Bring it,” she said, challenging her.

“I think I’ve embarrassed you enough for one day,” she said. “I’ll let you keep it. For now.”

“You’re so gracious, Sunshine,” teased Alex.

“Oh, I know,” laughed Margarita.

“I’m getting water,” Becky announced.

“I’ll come with you,” Alex said, finishing up a solid knot on the foot of the hammock.

“Cool,” she said. Together, they collected various canteens and headed down the path towards the well.

“Francis is good,” Becky informed her. “Lincoln had the immunity idol, so when he and Emi voted against him to cause a deadlock, Nicole and Lincoln voted Emi and got her out.”

Alex nodded. “Any way of confirming that?”

She shrugged. “Probably not, not without tipping our hand to Beauty.”

“Gotcha,” she said. “I guess we’re going to have to trust him.”

“Seems that way. Have you talked to Peter or Aishe yet?”

“No, but I was thinking of telling them that we, meaning Brains, have an idol to win them over, but, and here’s the catch, if they press me, I’ll tell them it’s Matteo who’s got it,” Alex said.

“Ooh, good plan, so if they’re going to blindside us, they’ll probably avoid Matteo.” She nodded in approval. “Good stuff.”

“Well, that’s the hope, anyway.” She decided to ask Becky about the legacy advantage. “So, uh, question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Did you ask Margarita to save me with a legacy advantage last week?”

Becky stopped walking. “No… You got a legacy advantage? Doesn’t the person have to be voted out and then will it to someone?”

Alex stopped and turned to face her. She blew out a breath. “It was a legacy advantage that could not be used by the person who found it, which was Margarita. It could only be used when there were 14 people left in the game or 7 people left in the game.” She shrugged. “I guess she figured I’d be a target or Gabe would be a target and sent it to me.” She shrugged again. “I figured you or Matteo asked her to save me.”

Becky shook her head. “I didn’t know she had an advantage. Did Matteo?”

“He says he didn’t.”

“Interesting,” Becky said. “I guess it was because it was you and Gabe against the Brawns.”

“I guess so,” she said.

 

***

 

That night, as the conversations around the campfire died down and people started to turn in, Alex headed to her hammock and got in, pulling the blanket up to her chest and put her sweatshirt behind her head as a pillow. It was delightful, feeling the hammock sway slightly in the night breeze. She was just starting to drift off when she was woken up.

“Move over,” Margarita said, standing at the side of the hammock.

“Huh?”

“It’s plenty big enough to fit two. Stop hogging it,” she grinned.

“Uh. Okay?” She shifted her legs over and Margarita sat down in the newly-vacated space and laid down with her head near Alex’s feet, her own feet near Alex’s head. She tugged the blanket over her. 

“There we go,” she said, satisfied. “Cozy.”

Alex was still trying to figure out what was going on. “What, you’re not cuddling with Matteo tonight?” she teased.

“He’s actually the one who told me I should insist on sharing your comfortable hammock and steal your body heat, in exchange for saving your ass with the legacy advantage.”

Alex made a mental note to smack Matteo upside the head the next day. “I guess that’s fair,” she said. “And, uh, thanks for not mentioning it during our challenge today.”

She felt the hammock move as Margarita shrugged. “It would be damaging for my game if my fellow Beauty tribemates knew I’d purposely saved a Brain instead of Gabe.”

Alex took a breath. “Why  _ did _ you save me and not Gabe?”

“Because,  _ nerd _ , you’re supposed to be the smart one,” she chuckled. “You could have used it for him if you thought he was in danger, or you could have used it for yourself. And since you’re still here, I assume that you and Gabe voted out Brandon after successfully playing the advantage.”

“You know, Sunshine,” she said, “you’re not too shabby in the Brains department yourself.”

“Well, I don’t go around advertising it,” Margarita said. “I prefer to let people discount me because of my looks and then surprise them by being a good player.”

“I think you’re a great player,” Alex said, without thinking.

“You gettin’ soft on me?” Margarita teased.

“No,” Alex denied, perhaps a bit too emphatically, thankful for the darkness that hid her blush.

“Sure, sure. I believe you.” She giggled. “All right. We should get some sleep before they accuse us of forming an alliance or something.”

“G’night, Sunshine,” Alex said, smiling.

“Goodnight, Alex,” she replied. “Sweet dreams.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some YouTube links to give you some context! Open in a new tab to come back here easily.
> 
> [Inspiration for Extra Vote](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88mF2BF2qic)
> 
> [Calling Challenge (immunity 3)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0KKGVYAdLA)
> 
> [David vs Goliath individual immunity tribal council](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eP3ylnJndI)
> 
> [Tribe Swap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsVUHAA2R4U)
> 
> [Dig for the Bag Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3wJ7q4-F4o)
> 
> [Tribe Merge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvD4yLQ8nM)
> 
> [Pole Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47mTYxz2ZdM)
> 
> [Puzzle Relay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIiaj4PKI-E)


	3. Day 27 - 35

_ Day 27 _

By the time they made it to Tribal Council, Alex was convinced everything had been properly organized. The Brains and the Brawns were supposed to vote for Noah, a big threat on the Beauty tribe. If Francis voted with them, if the Brawns voted with them and if Noah didn’t have an idol, it should be smooth sailing. Matteo had let it leak to the Beauties that they were targeting Peter and would welcome their help in taking out both the Brawns. They’d seemed amenable, though there was no telling what would actually happen.

Alex had worried for nothing. The vote had gone smoothly. Francis, Peter and Aishe had all voted with them, as anticipated, and no idol was played, so while Peter did get four votes from the Beauties, Noah was voted out and became the first member of the jury. Brains had a 4-3-2 advantage in numbers. It was a good night.

“You played us,” Margarita accused Alex, as they walked back to camp in the dark.

She shrugged. “All’s fair in love, war and Survivor. That’s what Noah himself told me on the boat on day one.”

“Still, that wasn’t very nice, Alex.”

“Wasn’t entirely my idea, you know. There were five other people who voted the same way I did tonight.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” she said. “You’re the brain of the Brains. This was your strategy.”

It was, at that, but she wasn’t about to admit it to her. “Maybe I am and maybe I’m not. But you? As if you’re not the brain of the Beauties,” she said.

“If I admit to it, will I get your vote at the final Tribal Council?” Margarita asked.

“If you’re going to be at the final Tribal,” Alex said, “I’m going to be right there next to you.”

“Oh good,” Margarita said, “you’ll have a great view of my winning the million dollars.”

“Ooh, awfully confident there, aren’t we?” Alex grinned.

“With reason, too.” She shook her head. “We were happy to work with you to oust the Brawns, but you played us. Big mistake,” she said. “Big. Huge.”

“All right, Julia Roberts.”

Margarita laughed. “Oh, you got the reference, then?”

“How many times have you called me a nerd? Are you really surprised I can identify a Pretty Woman quote?”

“I guess not,” she said. “But the warning still stands. It was a mistake. You’d better bring your A game to the next immunity challenge,” she said.

“Oh, I will,” she promised.

That night, Alex was surprised when Margarita showed up at the hammock again. “I thought we were at war?”

“That’s the game. This is sleeping,” she said, getting comfortable and stealing too much of the blanket.

“Isn’t sleeping part of the game?”

“Okay, yes, who you sleep with is part of the game,” Margarita said. “And I like to keep my enemies close.”

Alex considered. “So now you’re sleeping with the enemy  _ and _ you’re a pretty woman? How huge of a Julia Roberts fan  _ are _ you, anyways?” she laughed.

“You don’t forget your first crush,” Margarita said, simply. “But I’m impressed you made that connection. Good job, nerd. Now get some sleep.”

“G’night, Sunshine,” she murmured. It was confirmed, then. Margarita was, by her own admission, into women, at least to some degree. That was  _ definitely _ going to mess with her head.

 

***

 

_ Day 28 _

That morning, they were delivered wallets for each of them, each containing $500 in $20 bills. It was Auction Day.

The trouble with the Survivor Auction was that if you spent any money, you couldn’t immediately bid the maximum for any in-game advantage. Jeff made the rules clear: no pooling of money, no sharing of rewards and if you and someone else tied, you’d go to rocks as a tiebreaker.

“The first item,” Jeff said, as he brought up a covered dish from behind his counter top, “will remain covered. Bids start at $20.”

“$20,” said Nicole.

“$20, do I hear $40?”

“Going once, twice, sold for $20 to Nicole.”

She got up off their bench and went to hand Jeff the money.

“Here it is, a peanut butter sandwich.”

“Oh my God, this is going to be so good,” she said, bringing the plate back with her to the bench.

Alex swallowed. She  _ loved _ peanut butter.

“The second item,” Jeff said, pulling the cover off, with a flourish.

She felt her mouth water. It was a hot dog and a soda. Still, she didn’t bid.

“$20,” said Lincoln.

“$100,” said Francis.

“$120,” said Lincoln.

“$140,” bid Peter.

“$140 going once, twice, sold to Peter for $140.”

Alex tried not to smell the hot dog as he walked past her.

“The third item will remain covered. Opening bid is $100,” said Jeff, pulling a large tray on to the counter.

“$100,” said Margarita.

“$120,” said Nicole.

“$140,” Aishe bid.

“$140, going once, twice, sold to Aishe. Now, Aishe, you have a choice. You can either keep this original item that you purchased or you can replace it with this item,” he said, pulling out another large tray, “or this item.” Another tray came up.

“Uhhh,” Aishe said, unsure.

“Here, let me make it easy for you,” Jeff said, uncovering one of the trays. On it was a single cookie.

“It’s the Monty Hall problem,” Alex said. “You want to switch it.”

Aishe looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You always switch with Monty Hall type problems. He’s just shown you the worst possible choice, so you should choose the other tray.”

Aishe frowned. “But what if I have the good one and that’s why he’s offering these? Trying to tempt me to give it up?”

“You want to switch,” Alex said. “Trust me.”

Aishe shook her head. “Nope, sticking with my gut.” She handed Jeff the $140. “I’ll take my original one.”

“You want the good news or the bad news?”

“The good.”

“The good news is you just got a bowl of candy.” He uncovered the tray and she smiled and picked up the bowl, filled with various sweets. “The bad news is, you should have listened to Alex.” He uncovered the last tray to reveal a full pizza.

“Dammit,” Aishe muttered, around a mouthful of candy.

“Bidding opens on the pizza for $200.”

“$200!” shouted Lincoln.

“$260,” bid Francis.

“$300,” said Peter.

“$300 going once, twice, sold to Peter!”

Peter paid Jeff and took the pizza back to the bench and Alex steadfastly ignored him, hoping that Jeff would just come out with an advantage already.

“Next up, a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce and garlic bread.”

“Oh God,” Becky said, her mouth watering. “$20.”

“$100,” said Francis.

“$160,” Margarita said.

“$160 going once, twice, sold to Margarita for $160.”

Alex shut her eyes, unable to watch Margarita enjoying the pasta.

“The next item is an advantage in the game,” Jeff said, holding a small, rolled parchment.

“$500!” Alex said, thrusting her arm into the air.

“$500 from Alex, anyone else?”

“$500,” said Matteo.

“$500,” echoed Becky.

“$500,” said Lincoln.

“All right, anyone else? No? Okay, c’mon up. Everyone pays and everyone picks a rock.” He held out a bag. “Don’t look. Choose one rock.”

Alex selected second and hoped she’d chosen wisely.

“Okay, hands out, palms up, no looking,” Jeff instructed and they complied.

“All right, the red rock will win. Black rocks will be a nice, expensive souvenir.” He smiled. “Reveal.”

Alex took a breath and opened her palm. There was a shiny red rock.

“Alex wins the advantage,” Jeff announced, much to the consternation of the others. He handed it to her. “This is sealed. Keep it sealed and bring it to the next immunity challenge.”

She nodded.

“Next up, a Survivor-style shower,” Jeff said, unveiling a wooden outdoor shower over to the side. The bamboo walls of the shower were short and would easily reveal the legs and shoulders of anyone in the cubicle. “Soap, shampoo, conditioner, the works. Bidding opens at $300.”

“$300,” Margarita said, still a bit of spaghetti and garlic bread left in her plate.

“$320,” said Nicole.

“$340,” Margarita raised.

“$340, going once, twice, sold to Margarita!” Jeff said. “C’mon up and pay.”

She shoveled in one more mouthful of pasta and carried the last piece of garlic bread with her and tossed him the money and her now-empty wallet. She then stripped off her shirt and shorts and shoes and then walked purposefully over to the shower, stuffing the last bit of garlic bread into her mouth.

Alex, meanwhile, gazed at her as she entered the shower stall and watched as she went through the motions of removing her bathing suit, rinsing off the two pieces in the shower, before resting them on the edge of the shower wall. She turned and got her hair wet and put in an absolutely ridiculous amount of shampoo in her hair, massaging it into her scalp.

Two auctions had gone by, but Alex had paid precisely zero attention to them. She had no more money with which to bid and Margarita’s showering twenty feet away was definitely a distraction. She wasn’t trying to get a glimpse but the knowledge that she was there, showering, naked... She forced herself to look away and pay attention to what people were bidding on things, knowing each auction item could lead to one more person who would potentially be stronger at the next immunity challenge. She cast another glance towards Margarita, who was now rinsing her long, thick, dark hair. She turned back to focus on Jeff, who had just gotten $100 from Nicole for pig brains, which Nicole tried and then decided she didn’t want. Alex rolled her eyes. Protein was protein.

“All right, that’s it, auction’s over. Finish up anything you’ve got and then head back to camp. No food can leave the auction area,” he warned them.

Margarita wandered over to them, back in her bathing suit, drying her hair with a fluffy towel. “Man, a shower, a meal, that really hit the spot,” she said, cheerfully.

Alex grumbled to herself, reminding herself that she won the immunity advantage, that  _ that _ was the important thing. But did Margarita have to smell so damn good?

That night, Margarita climbed into the hammock without even saying anything.

“So this is a thing, now?” Alex asked.

“How many shared nights in a hammock is a legacy advantage worth?” Margarita quipped. “At  _ least _ three. Maybe as many as 13 nights.”

“Fine,” she said, “steal all my body heat, but quit hogging the blanket.” She tugged on it to emphasize her point.

“My, my, aren’t we demanding?” Margarita laughed, tugging it back and patting Alex on her leg, under the blanket. “Get some rest, you’re going to need it tomorrow.”

“Night,” she mumbled. How was she ever going to sleep next to this wildly attractive woman who now smelled amazing?

 

***

 

_ Day 29 _

As it happened, she slept wonderfully. She didn’t like to admit it aloud, but she definitely enjoyed bunking with Margarita in the hammock.

They arrived for the immunity challenge and Jeff took back the necklace from Margarita.

“Once again,” he said, “immunity is back up for grabs.”

The challenge was a two-parter, with the first challenge involving walking along a balance beam that was set up at odd angles, and untying bags of puzzle pieces. The first three people through that portion of the challenge would go on to the second portion, which was solving a word puzzle. Of course, falling off the beam would mean running back to the start, as per usual.

“Alex, you won an advantage at the auction,” Jeff said. “Would you please read the advantage out loud?”

She nodded and untied the parchment, then unrolled it and read it aloud. “The bearer of this advantage will skip the first portion of the challenge and move directly to the second and final portion.”

“So, the first three people to untie their puzzle pieces and cross the line will compete against Alex in the puzzle portion of the challenge. We’ll draw for spots and get ready.”

Alex had a great view of the first round. Matteo and Lincoln were off to a good start, with Aishe and Margarita just behind them. In the end, Matteo fell off the beam, so Lincoln, Aishe and Margarita all finished, while Matteo had to restart. No one else was even close.

“All right, here we go with round two,” Jeff said, once production had provided Alex with her three bags of puzzle pieces. “Survivors ready? Go!”

Alex grabbed her first bag and flew through the knots, dumping out the contents on a large table in front of her. She got through the second and third pretty quickly, too, though Lincoln was right behind her and, as far as she could tell, both Aishe and Margarita were ahead of her. She focused on her own puzzle and flipped all the letters over so they were facing up. She saw an unusual amount of Os and Us. There were also no Es, which was weird. She saw the solution in her mind’s eye. It was the slogan for the show, it had to be. She frowned to herself. Was it Outwit, Outplay, Outlast or was it Outplay, Outwit, Outlast? She cursed quietly and assembled Outlast as the last word and then took a shot.

“Jeff!” she called, having assembled it as Outwit, Outplay, Outlast.

“Alex wins individual immunity!” he called.

“Dammit,” she heard Margarita say. “I had it.”

Alex peered over at her table. She’d been two letters shy.

“Better luck next time, Sunshine,” she said, as she walked over to receive the necklace from Jeff.

“Safe at the vote, guaranteed a one in eight shot at winning this game. The rest of you, someone will be voted out at tribal tomorrow night, becoming the second person on the jury. Grab your stuff and head out.” He patted Alex’s shoulder. “Congrats.”

She smiled radiantly at him. “Thanks.”

Of course, now the hard work began. She’d have to talk to Becky and Matteo and Francis as soon as possible to try to figure out who to vote out. 

That afternoon, Becky, Francis, Matteo and Alex took the raft out, ostensibly to go fishing, but really, they were attempting to decide who to vote out next.

“We should get rid of Margarita,” Becky said. “She’s smart, she’s definitely a threat.”

Alex tried not to react, though she wasn’t sure that was the best move. “That’s an idea,” she allowed. “What about Lincoln and Peter? Shouldn’t we try to get rid of strong guys?”

“Better Lincoln than Peter, I think,” said Matteo. “If we want to keep options with Brawn open and work to pick off Beauty. What do you think, Francis?”

“I think Margarita can wait,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind seeing Peter go, honestly. We’ve got the numbers.”

“If we get rid of Peter, though, won’t Aishe just side with Beauty next vote?” asked Alex, as she dangled some line with a lure on the end over the side of the raft, idly making it swim through the water.

“And if that happens, you’ve got your extra vote,” Becky pointed out. “Then we retain control afterwards.”

“Unless there’s an idol,” Matteo added.

“Do we think there’s an idol?” asked Alex.

“I haven’t heard anything,” said Francis, “not since Lincoln used his to get rid of Emi.”

“So there could be as many as two idols that are unaccounted for,” said Becky.

“So we flush an idol?” asked Alex. “Make them think we’re voting for Lincoln, then vote out Peter instead.” She shrugged. “Hopefully, we get them to waste an idol on Lincoln.”

“That seems solid,” said Francis.

Both Matteo and Becky were in agreement as well.

They returned from the fishing expedition victorious, with Alex having caught a couple of fish with the Hawaiian sling and the others each catching a couple of smaller fish with lures and nets. Combined with some rice, it made for a halfway decent meal.

Talk around the campfire turned to occupations. Alex stuck to her cover story of being a biologist and learned that Margarita had been a model for a bit before using the money to finance law school. She was a public defender who had just moved to National City before getting cast on the show.

“Oh, you’re in National City?” she asked. “Me too.”

“Cool,” Margarita said, with an easy smile. “Assuming you’re not too bitter about my voting you out, we should hang out after filming wraps.”

Alex chuckled.

“Where’s everyone else from?” Margarita asked.

The conversations eventually died down and people headed to bed. Margarita walked with Alex over to the hammock and Alex sighed the sigh of the put-upon.

“Really?”

“What’s the matter, don’t you like sharing your hammock with me?” she teased.

“When you’re on the jury, please remember how accommodating I was about the hammock. This is definitely worth your jury vote,” Alex said, climbing in.

“No way, you’re going to have to earn that yourself,” she said, getting comfortable. “This is still payback for saving you.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “You’re just going to lord that over my head for the rest of the game, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am.”

Alex sighed. “At least you’re honest.”

“So where do you live?”

“Huh?”

“At home. Where do you live?”

“Oh,” Alex said. “Uh, I live on Cordova Street.”

“Cool,” she said, “I’m over on Flower. Practically neighbours. We should definitely hang out after the show ends.”

“Cool,” Alex said. “I’d like that.”

“We can have watch parties together when our season airs and you can find out all the things I’ve been saying about you to my alliance.”

Alex paused, thinking about all the things  _ she’d _ said about Margarita to  _ her _ alliance. Specifically how she told Matteo that she thought she was cute. “Uh, yeah, sure, good, cool.”

“That’s it?”

“What?”

“You’re not curious to know what I’ve been saying to my alliance about you?”

Alex forced a chuckle. “You’re obviously telling them I’m a huge threat and I need to be voted out immediately.”

“There you go again.”

“Hm?”

“Earning your title of nerd.”

Alex grinned.

“Goodnight, Alex.”

“G’night, Sunshine.”

 

***

 

_ Day 30 _

Before Tribal Council, Alex touched based with her fellow Brains. They’d leaked to the Brawns that they were voting Lincoln, when in actuality, they were voting out Peter, while hopefully flushing out an idol from the Beauties. It was a sound plan.

They got to Tribal Council and placed their torches behind them before sitting down.

“We’ll now bring in the first member of the jury, Noah, voted out at the last Tribal Council.”

Noah walked in and took his seat on the jury’s bench. Alex was by no means straight, but even she could appreciate how conventionally attractive he was, especially once he’d shaved and showered. She smiled at him and he glared in return.

Tribal seemed to fly by. Alex didn’t know if it was just a shorter one than usual or if it was because she felt safe with her immunity necklace on. Regardless, it was time to vote soon enough. When it was her turn, she walked up and wrote down PETER and held it up to the camera. “Nothing personal, you’re just someone who I think could go on an immunity run,” she said. Alex then folded the parchment and placed it in the urn before returning to her seat.

Once everyone had voted, Jeff nodded. “I’ll go tally the votes.”

Alex went over what she expected to see in her head. She expected three votes for one of the Brains, two votes for Lincoln and four votes for Peter. She nodded to herself. It was a good plan.

Jeff came back out with the urn. “If anyone has a hidden immunity idol and they’d like to play it, now would be the time to do so.”

Alex looked around, expecting one to be cast for Lincoln, but no one stood up. That could be a good sign, she reasoned. Maybe they just didn’t have an idol.

“First vote, Peter,” Jeff said. “Second vote, Peter. Third vote, Peter.”

Alex remained stoic, but pleased that things seemed to be going smoothly.

“Matteo.” Jeff held up another parchment.

It wasn’t easy to see Matteo’s name, but she’d been expecting it. With her having immunity, Matteo was a logical choice to target.

“Matteo. Three votes Peter, two votes Matteo.”

“I don’t like seeing my name there,” muttered Matteo.

“Matteo. We’re tied. Three votes Peter, three votes Matteo, three votes left.”

Alex held her breath. There should be two votes for Lincoln and one more for Peter.

“Matteo. Four votes Matteo, three votes Peter, two votes left.”

“What the hell?” Becky said, quietly.

“Oh, shit,” said Alex.

“The tenth person voted out of the game and the second member of our jury,” Jeff said, “Matteo.” He revealed the parchment. “Five votes, that’s enough. Matteo, please bring me your torch.”

In shock, Matteo hugged Alex and Becky before bringing Jeff his torch.

“Matteo, the tribe has spoken. It’s time for you to go.” He covered the torch with the snuffer.

Matteo waved and headed out. Alex’s mind was still racing.

“Looks like some allegiances might have changed,” Jeff commented. “Grab your stuff and head out. Have a good night.”

Margarita grinned at Alex as they filed out. “Big mistake,” she said. “Huge.”

Alex gasped as Margarita walked away, a bit of an extra bounce in her step. It was clear — Margarita had orchestrated this. Not only had they not flushed an idol, but one of her key allies had been voted out. And, she realized, doing the math once more, someone had flipped. With only three votes for Peter, it meant that someone in her Brains alliance had voted with Beauty and Brawn.

“It’s Francis, it has to be,” Becky whispered to her on the long walk back to camp. “There’s no way Matteo didn’t vote Peter. I voted Peter. You voted Peter. It has to be Francis. He ratted us out.”

Alex slumped. “And he knows we have an extra vote and an idol. He had all of our information. Which means…”

“Which means now they do, too. Dammit,” Becky cursed.

They got back to camp and Alex hung up her necklace on the branch they’d been using as a resting spot for it. She’d been way too cocky, way too confident. Being personally immune didn’t mean things couldn’t still go horribly awry.

She climbed into her hammock and, as usual, Margarita joined her a few minutes later.

“Come to rub my nose in it?” she snapped.

“No,” Margarita said, cheerfully, “I’m just here to steal your body heat, as usual.”

Alex didn’t respond to that, but did move over a bit for Margarita to join her.

“Nothing to say? No ‘good game’ or ‘well-played’?”

“You want me to congratulate you when you’ve just orchestrated the exit of one of my closest allies thanks to Francis flipping? No, I don’t think I’ll do that.”

Margarita laughed. “So you figured it out.”

“It’s basic math,” she shot back.

“It’s a game, Alex,” Margarita said, getting comfortable. “Relax.”

She knew it was a game, but she was seething because she didn’t see an obvious way out of the problem she now had. There were now six people who were aligned against herself and Becky. “If he flipped once, you know he’ll flip again,” she said, casually.

“Who, Francis?”

“Yeah. Becky and I would vote him next time, if he doesn’t win immunity.” She hoped the idea she was floating would buy her and Becky a few more days.

There was silence from Margarita, presumably as she thought about it.

“That’s a very interesting piece of knowledge, Alex. I’ll have to talk to some people about it.”

Alex nodded to herself. That was about as good as she could hope for at that point. “Cool,” she said. “G’night, Sunshine.”

“Night, Alex.”

 

*** 

 

_ Day 31 _

Alex was tired from the moment she woke up and it had nothing to do with how she had slept. It was that her brain kept whirring, kept trying to find a path to the end now that her alliance had dwindled to her and Becky. She wasn’t even excited at the prospect of the undoubtedly tasty reward at that day’s challenge.

They filed in and stood on their mat.

“You guys ready for today’s reward challenge?” Jeff asked.

They all replied in the affirmative, some of them more boisterously than others.

“In today’s challenge, you’ll be paired up and toss mud-covered beanbags to your partner, who will then try to knock over five separate targets. The team who knocks down all five of their targets first wins reward.” He paused. “Wanna know what you’re playing for?”

More cheers, although Alex wasn’t particularly interested.

“You’re playing,” Jeff said, “for love.”

Alex’s head snapped up.

“You’ll be paired with a loved one for this challenge.”

Alex exhaled, slowly, her eyes watering. Becky clutched at her arm in disbelief.

“Lincoln, who do you want to see?”

“My boyfriend,” he said, his face splitting open with a smile.

“Let’s get your boyfriend out here, c’mon out, Aaron!”

A cute, skinny, scruffy guy came running out and into Lincoln’s arms. They hugged tightly for at least a full minute before Lincoln pulled back and kissed him softly. Alex was beaming and idly wondered if the kiss would be aired on television.

“Tell us about Aaron, Lincoln,” Jeff said.

Lincoln could hardly compose himself. He swiped at his eyes with his buff that he always wore as a wristband. “Aaron is… just he’s the best. He knows how to calm me down, he knows how to stay out of my way when I’m in a mood, but he can always calm me down when he senses the mood’s gone on for too long.” He gazed over at him. “He’s amazing and he’s so generous and so kind and I can’t believe you’re really here,” he said, kissing him again.

“All right,” Jeff said, smiling. “Head back over there together.”

The two walked back to the mat, hands clasped.

“Nicole, are you ready for some love?” Jeff asked.

“So ready,” she said.

“Let’s bring out your brother, Devon.”

Devon was a tall, muscular young man, well-groomed and well-dressed, even out here in Fiji. It was clear that he and Nicole were siblings. She sobbed at the sight of him and ran up to him. He swept her up in his arms and hugged her tightly before setting her back on the ground.

“Nicole, tell us about him.”

“This is my big brother, Jeff,” she said, tears flowing freely down her face. “If there was anyone I wanted to see out here, it was him. I know he’ll look out for me, help me however he can and we are going to kick some ass, because he played college baseball!” she laughed.

Jeff laughed. “All right, take your spots,” he said. He turned to Becky. “Ready for some love, Becky?”

“Oh yes, please,” she said, already crying, stepping forward, away from Alex.

“Let’s bring out your mom, Sandy.”

A small, rather round woman came out on to the beach and Becky ran right for her. They embraced and Becky cried so hard that she was essentially incapable of speech.

“Tell me about Becky, Sandy,” Jeff asked, as Becky kept her arms wrapped around her mother, her face buried in the smaller woman’s shoulder.

“My girl,” she said, bursting with pride, “my girl is smart and she is strong and she can do anything.” She placed a kiss on Becky’s cheek. “And she’s still here and she’s doing so well and I’m proud of her, her father is proud of her, her grandmother is proud of her.” She turned back to Becky. “We all love you so much, Rebecca.”

“Take your spot, ladies,” Jeff said, looking as though he was tearing up. He took a steadying breath. He turned to face them again. “Margarita, who do you want to see?”

“My tia,” she said, almost as a whisper, almost as though she didn’t dare to hope.

“Let’s bring out your aunt, your tia, Gabriella.”

The instant the woman hit the beach, Margarita was running for her. The two women embraced tightly and Margarita was crying openly. “Estoy bien, estoy bien, estoy feliz, si, si, si,” Margarita said, hanging on as if for dear life.

“Margarita, tell us about your tia.”

She was radiant when she smiled, even with tear-stained cheeks. “My aunt Gabriella raised me,” she said. “She has been my rock, my provider, my parent, my sister, my best friend. My everything.”

Her aunt wasn’t that much older than Margarita, to Alex’s eye. If Margarita was around 30, Gabriella couldn’t have been more than 50.

“So if she raised you,” Jeff said, “are you okay telling us why? If not, don’t worry.”

Margarita’s demeanour changed, slightly. “No, it’s fine,” she said. “My father didn’t like it when I told him I was gay, so he dropped me at my aunt’s and that was it. I haven’t talked to my parents in 15 years.” She turned to face the camera. “Hola Papi, Mami. Estoy bien, gracias a Gabriella.” She smirked.

Gabriella laughed. “Let’s win this for you, Maggie.”

Together, they walked back to the mat.

“Alex. Who do you most want to see?”

Just when she thought she’d composed herself, she found herself crying again. “My dad.”

“C’mon out, Jeremiah,” called Jeff.

And then there he was, running towards her, his slightly overgrown hair rustling in the breeze, his smile huge on his face, his arms waiting for her. She felt like she was six years old again as she ran to him and into his arms and, suddenly, everything was perfect. She closed her eyes as he wrapped her in his embrace. “Daddy,” she whispered.

“I’m so proud of you, Alex,” he said, softly, still holding her tight. “I love you so much and your mom and I, we’re so, so proud of you.”

That started her crying again. “You have no idea how badly I need you right now, Dad,” she said, sobbing.

“It’s okay, Alex,” he soothed, “it’s okay. We’ll win this challenge. It’ll be okay.”

She sniffled and pulled away from him, crying and smiling at once.

“Tell us about him, Alex,” said Jeff.

“This is my dad. And I feel like… I feel like that should just say it all. Because he’s always been that guy for me. That person. The person whose arms make everything okay. The person who can help me think things through. The person who helps me to solve everything, from a math problem to a relationship problem, from teaching me how to find the Big Dipper to helping me with a thesis.” She rested her head on his chest. “He’s my dad, Jeff. He fixes everything.”

“Okay, head over,” Jeff said.

Alex paid very little attention to the rest of the family members — Francis’ mom, Debra, Peter’s wife, Vicky, Aishe’s sister, Miriam — she was too busy trying to soak up all of the strength Jeremiah could offer her.

“All right, today, you’re playing for love. The winner of the challenge will go back to camp, with their loved one. They’ll have a feast. Your loved one will stay overnight at camp and leave in the morning. Loved ones, are you ready for that?”

There was a cheer.

“All right, folks, we’ll draw for spots and then we’ll get started.”

Alex eyed the distance between her and her dad. It was about 20, maybe 25 feet. She’d have to throw the mud-covered beanbag pretty hard. Her dad would then have to cover about the same distance in order to hit the targets. She looked over at him, eyebrows raised. He smiled and nodded once, confidently. He was telling her that they had this.

“Survivors and loved ones, ready?” Jeff asked. “Go!”

Alex stepped up to the muddy trough and found a beanbag. She picked it up and hefted it. It was definitely heavier than she’d thought. She threw it hard at her dad, who collected it easily, before spinning around to throw at the targets. He knocked one clean off while Alex dug for the next bag.

“Just like that, Jeremiah scores one for Alex’s team!” Jeff called.

She threw the next at him and, again, he grasped it, spun and threw it at a target. It connected and fell to the ground.

“Jeremiah and Alex have two targets down! Two for two!”

Jeremiah missed the next and Alex didn’t quite get the fourth one to him, but the only other person to even knock off a single target was Nicole’s brother. He was perfectly on target, Alex noticed, but the problem was Nicole couldn’t throw far enough to get the bag to him. Letting that fuel her, Alex hurled the beanbag at her dad, who caught it with a yelp. “Stinger!” he called, with a grin, as he turned and took down the third target.

“Jeremiah and Alex have three! Devon and Nicole have one! No one else has even come close,” Jeff said. “This is for  _ love _ , people! Pick it up! Fight for it!”

Alex threw another bag and Jeremiah caught it easily before just missing their fourth target.

“Gabriella gets one down for herself and Margarita!”

Alex threw again and Jeremiah caught it again. He took his time and launched it at the fourth target. It went down easily.

“Jeremiah and Alex have four! Just one more!”

She could taste it, the feast, the afternoon and evening with her dad. It was hers. She threw another bag at him and he threw it perfectly and Jeff’s words cemented it.

“Jeremiah and Alex win reward!”

Her dad was coated in mud, as was she, but it didn’t matter as they ran up to each other and hugged tightly. “You did it,” Alex said, crying all over again, “thank you.”

“We did it, kiddo,” he corrected her.

Soon enough, Jeff had them stand up by him. She wouldn’t let go of Jeremiah, holding him around the waist as he rested his arm around her shoulders.

“Jeremiah and Alex, you’ll go back to camp and feast… but a feast with just two people isn’t as much fun as a feast with four people, right? Alex, pick one other person to join you with their loved one.”

There was no hesitation. “Becky.”

“Becky and Sandy, c’mon over,” Jeff said, and the two women joined them.

“Thank you so much,” said Becky, hugging Alex tightly.

“Okay, Alex. Just one more person and their loved one.”

She took a breath and looked out across the faces of her hopeful tribemates and their loved ones. She had to be strategic about it. She leaned over and whispered to Becky. “Margarita’s the right choice, right? To convince her we’re willing to work with her?”

“Definitely,” she said.

Alex nodded. “Margarita.”

Margarita just stared at her, jaw agape. She moved forward with her aunt, almost in disbelief. “Thank you,” she said, sincerely, wrapping her arms around Alex.

Alex closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Margarita, too. “You’re welcome, Sunshine,” she whispered.

“All right, everyone else, said goodbye to your loved ones,” Jeff announced.

The rest of them said their tearful goodbyes and then the eight of them, plus their three guests, headed back to camp.

 

***

 

The food was great, but the best thing was time with her dad, although he did manage to inadvertently out her.

“Margarita, right?” he asked her, while finishing a beer.

“That’s right,” she said.

“Margarita, can I just say that I was back in the staging area, but I heard the story about your dad. And I’m so sorry that he couldn’t deal with it. It’s obvious it’s his loss. You seem like a smart, strong, capable young woman and any man should be proud to be your father. So I’m sorry yours is a jackass.”

“Dad!” Alex elbowed him.

Margarita laughed. “It’s okay. He  _ is _ a jackass. Even Tia agrees with me.”

“Si, it is true,” Gabriella chimed in. “My brother-in-law is a jackass.”

Jeremiah grinned. “I have to admit, it wasn’t easy when Alex told me, but the most important thing was for me to be there for her. I could work out how I felt about it later.”

“Oh God,” Alex muttered. “I…” She cleared her throat. “I hadn’t actually told them, Dad.”

He frowned. “What?”

“I hadn’t exactly told anyone that I’m gay.”

“Why not? You’re so out and proud. And I’m so proud of you for who you are, Alex.” He nudged her. “Don’t you hide who you are, sweetheart.”

She blushed. “I just… didn’t want to give certain people that kind of personal information about me.”

Margarita was smirking. “I knew it,” she said, “I knew you were family!”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Like her.”

“Oh,” he said. “Whoops?”

She sighed and pecked him on the cheek. “It’s fine.”

“I knew it!” cackled Margarita.

“Quiet, Sunshine,” Alex chuckled.

“Make me, nerd,” she retorted, still smirking.

 

***

 

They finished eating and Alex took a walk with her dad.

“So how’s the game going? Must be okay, since you’re still here?”

She shook her head and they sat down on the sandy beach. “Oh, Dad,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes again, “I don’t know if I can think my way out of this.”

“What’s going on?”

She blew air out of her mouth and leaned on her dad’s shoulder. “They voted out one of my closest allies last night. Another ally flipped on me. It’s literally me and Becky against the other six of them.”

He wrapped her left arm around her and squeezed her close. “Okay, at first look, that’s not wonderful,” he said. “Do you have any idols?”

She sighed and nodded. “Becky’s got one. And I have an extra vote. But unless I can pull  _ two _ of the six over, or unless I can convince them that someone’s not loyal… then there’s no way I can last.”

“What about winning immunity?”

She nodded. “I managed to win last time. I think that’s why I’m still here and my alliance member is gone.”

He hummed. “So what are your options?”

She sighed. “Francis is the one who flipped on me and Becky, so I told Margarita, since she’s basically the head of her tribe, I told her that Becky and I would vote with them to oust him. She said she’d think about it.” She shook her head. “But unless Becky or I win immunity and use our idol to protect us both tomorrow, I think we’re gone.”

“Okay, what can you do to stay in? Let’s look at the possibilities.”

She sat up and looked at him. “Win immunity for the next 8 days.”

He laughed. “That would be nice, but not terribly likely.”

“Swing Francis back over to our side.”

“Also not terribly likely.”

“Convince Margarita to vote out Francis tomorrow and live another day?”

He considered. “That might be the ticket. She seems fond of you, kiddo.”

She snorted. “Her? Margarita?” She laughed. “Pretty sure she doesn’t like me all that much, Dad.”

“She seems pretty fond of you today. Maybe you can work with that,” he offered.

Alex sighed.

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing, just… you know, crushing on someone in a highly inappropriate situation, as per usual,” she muttered.

He laughed. “Oh, Alex.”

“What?”

“I figured that out as soon as I saw her hug you.”

“Oh God.”

“Any chance of… anything, there?”

“I am not getting into a gay showmance with Margarita, thanks so much, Dad.”

He laughed. “Would it get you to stay on in the game?”

She paused for a moment. “No. No it wouldn’t. She’s too smart.”

Jeremiah considered. “What about a women’s alliance? You, Becky, Margarita, the other two women?”

“That could potentially fly,” she mused.

“Or,” he said, “what about a gay alliance?”

She frowned.

“You, Margarita, that guy Lincoln?”

She shook her head. “Becky’s my ally. Since the first ten minutes on the beach.”

“I think you and Margarita need to team up, somehow. I think that’s how you get to the end,” Jeremiah said. “With or without Becky.”

She made a face. “I’ll consider it,” she said.

“I think it’s less of you not being able to find a path, kiddo, than it is you not being able to find a path you  _ like _ .”

She sighed and leaned against him. “How’d you get so wise?” she asked.

“Thirty years of being with your mother,” he joked.

That night, as Alex and Jeremiah attempted to get comfortable in the hammock, Alex realized she missed Margarita’s presence next to her. She mused to herself that their relationship, as it were, was sort of like the old cartoons where Ralph the wolf, who looked amazingly like Wile E. Coyote, would try to steal a sheep from the Sam the Sheepdog’s flock all day, then they’d punch out at the end of their shifts and be all buddy-buddy. That’s how it felt to fall asleep next to Margarita. She idly wondered what it would be like to fall asleep with her in a real bed.

Her last thought was of how grateful she was to have her dad with her on the island, even if it was just for a short time. And even if he did snore.

 

***

 

_ Day 32 _

After some tearful goodbyes, Alex felt ready to tackle the challenge in front of her. Her dad’s parting words of wisdom had been to remember that it was about getting to the end, even if she didn’t like how.

So when they entered the challenge area that day, Alex knew she had to win at all costs. She had to look out for herself. She smiled as she looked out at the ocean. It was a water challenge. That put her in a good enough mood that she hardly minded giving up the immunity necklace to Jeff.

It was an old challenge, but a good one, at least from Alex’s perspective. Each of them would have a floating, triangular-shaped platform on which to stand. They’d spend some time in an uncomfortable position at the lowest bar across the two widest faces, then they’d transition to a narrower bar. Finally, they’d move to the narrow, flat top of the platform until only one person was left standing.

They swam out to the platforms and Alex was next to Nicole and Lincoln. She smiled to herself as Jeff had them all take the first position. It wasn’t going to feel good, but that was fine. Her sense of balance on the water was honed from years of surfing, swimming, parasailing, waterskiing, canoeing, kayaking, rafting. Alex practically lived in the water as a kid, well into her adolescence, and she always went surfing when she went to visit her parents. If there was a single challenge on Survivor this season that was custom-made for her, this was it.

As everyone balanced themselves, Jeff counted them in. At the end of the count, no other body part could be touching the structure on which they stood.

“This challenge is on,” he said. “We’ll stay here for fifteen minutes and then move up to the second bar.”

It was legitimately easy for her. Sure, her feet weren’t altogether pleased with the bars against which they were wedged, but she was never in any danger of falling.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly.

“All right, we’re now going to move to the second bar. I’ll give you a 15 second countdown. 15… 14…”

Alex carefully stepped up. It was a narrower bar, to be sure, and it was a little easier to lose her balance, but she adjusted quickly and had done so before Jeff even reached the halfway mark. Peter was unable to transition, falling into the water, along with Francis. She smiled to herself. If Francis didn’t have immunity, maybe Margarita would be willing to instruct the Beauties to vote for him.

“2… 1… All right, this challenge is back on. Peter and Francis were unable to make the transition. We’re down to six. We’ll stay at this spot for another fifteen minutes and then move to the top of the platform.”

Alex smiled. That would be a little more difficult for her, but she was certain she’d be fine.

Before the fifteen minutes had elapsed, Lincoln had given up, his feet aching too badly. Aishe had also fallen in.

“We’re down to four,” Jeff announced, “and we’re going to move up to the top platform. I’ll count you in. 15… 14…”

Alex took a breath and carefully stepped up on to the top of the platform, her dominant foot, the right, in the rear, her left foot ahead. She remained low, taking a wide stance to better accommodate the waves and any movement caused by the wind.

“2… 1… And we’re back on. Everyone has transiti—” he was interrupted as Nicole flailed her arms wildly and went into the water. Alex focused on her knees as shock absorbers for the waves.

“We’re down to three. Nicole couldn’t transition. Alex looking solid, Margarita and Becky a little less so.”

“Thanks for pointing that out, Jeff!” Becky called.

Jeff returned his attention to Alex. “What’s your secret, Alex?”

“A lifetime of surfing waves ranging up to 15 feet, Jeff,” she said, not taking her eyes off the horizon.

“So those skills are translating here?”

“I’m still standing, aren’t I?” she grinned.

Without warning, the wind started up, whipping Alex’s hair around her face. Becky fell off the platform into the water.

“We’re down to two!” Jeff announced. “Once again, it’s Alex and Margarita.”

“You’re not going to win this one, Sunshine,” Alex called out, not bothered by the wind or hair in her face. She had barely moved, just using her knees and hips to ensure she moved with the waves.

She heard the sound of a splash and smiled but waited for Jeff to announce it.

“Margarita falls in, Alex wins her second consecutive individual immunity!” he said, hands raised.

Finally, she looked over at the floating dock Jeff was on, where all the others ended up. There was real respect there, as people clapped. She smiled winningly, stood up straight and cleanly dove into the ocean to collect her necklace from Jeff on the platform.

 

***

 

Back at camp, Alex and Becky took a long walk to the well. “I think you should use your idol tomorrow night,” she said. “If I’m immune and you’re immune, they’ll have to pick off one of their own.”

“Who do you want to vote for?”

“I think it’s feasible they’ll vote for Francis if they can’t vote for us. Then, the next tribal…” She counted on her fingers. “That leaves you and me and the extra vote against Margarita, Lincoln, Nicole, Peter and Aishe. But what if we can convince Peter and Aishe to take out Margarita?”

“I think you’ll have a hell of a time convincing them that Margarita’s more of a threat than you are,” Becky said, honestly.

“What if I have immunity? What if I’m immune and Margarita isn’t?”

“That’s a lot of ifs,” she responded, pouring water into a canteen.

She considered. “Okay, tell me what you think about this. It’s something my dad suggested to me.”

“Hm?”

“How about a women’s alliance?”

Becky raised her eyebrows. “I’d say that sounds interesting.”

“If the other women are amenable to it, that gives us five to three. And we don’t even need all the women. We just need two and my extra vote.”

Becky considered that. “I like it. It’s a good idea. Do you want to talk to Aishe?”

She nodded. “And you can talk to Margarita.”

Becky laughed. “Why don’t you talk to Margarita? Don’t you sleep with her every night?” She looked at Alex pointedly.

“Oh my God, it’s so not like that!” she laughed. “No, she enjoys getting something over on me. And stealing my body heat.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll talk to her,” Becky agreed. “And if she’s in, she can talk to Nicole?”

“I definitely like that.”

That night, Maggie showed up at the hammock. “Didja miss me last night?” she asked, as Alex automatically made space for her.

“I did,” she replied, honestly.

“What, really?”

“Yeah. You snore a bit less than my dad does.”

Margarita laughed. “Goodnight, Alex.”

“Night, Sunshine.”

 

***

 

_ Day 33 _

Becky and Alex walked into the Tribal Council area both sporting a necklace, of sorts. Alex’s was, of course, the immunity necklace. Becky wore a hidden immunity idol, in plain sight. It was a not-so-subtle sign that they would not be voted out that night. Alex had laughed, as it had been similar to Malcolm, Reynold and Eddie, in  _ Survivor: Caramoan _ , when they had voted out Phillip. Come what may, neither of them would be voted out that night.

They said as much during Tribal Council. “I have to say,” Alex said, “it feels really good to know that no one in my alliance is going home tonight.”

“Your alliance consists of two people,” Francis jabbed.

“Right. Because you flipped on us,” Alex said, cheerfully. “That’s why I wanted to announce that Becky and I will both be voting for Francis tonight. Feel free to join us.”

“With that,” Jeff said, “it’s time to vote.”

Becky and Alex had debated extensively as to whether or not they should actually play the hidden immunity idol and, ultimately, Becky decided to play it because she’d rather play it and be wrong to do so than to go home with it in her pocket. She didn’t feel great about the outcome when Peter was voted out by the Beauties and Francis. Peter had received four votes, Becky had only received two and Francis had gotten their two. It was clear to them what had happened — Francis and the Beauties took out Peter while telling Peter and Aishe to vote for Becky.

“Nice play,” Alex congratulated Margarita as they walked back to the beach. “We would have voted with you.”

“We’re a pretty strong final four,” she said, in response. “I don’t know why you keep looking for cracks.”

“That’s what you do when you’re in the minority,” she grinned. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to speak with Aishe.”

Margarita laughed. “Even with your extra vote, you guys can’t get the upper hand.”

Alex smiled. “We’ll see about that.”

Aishe was already speaking with Becky and she was furious. “I’m up for anything,” she said. “Let’s take those assholes out.”

They got back to camp and Alex got into the hammock. Moments later, Margarita joined her, as per usual.

“What’s up, Maggie?” she asked.

“Only my aunt calls me that,” she said, climbing into the hammock and, as was her habit, pulling too much of the blanket over to her.

“Why?”

“I don’t much like nicknames,” she said, “but saddling a kid with the full Margarita is kind of mean. So I went by Maggie at school. It was easier to fit in, with a name like that, instead of Margarita.”

Alex nodded. “Where’d you grow up?”

“Blue Springs, Nebraska, population 431, back when I was growing up. You?”

“Midvale. So when did you stop going by Maggie?”

She shrugged. “After high school, after I got out of Blue Springs. You know, when I got to a place where a name like Margarita wasn’t going to draw as much attention to me as it might there.” She paused. “When did you stop going by Alexandra?”

Alex laughed. “I never went by Alexandra. It’s on two pieces of identification — my passport and my birth certificate. Everything else says Alex.”

“That’s interesting. So you were never into the long and flowery names?”

She shook her head. “Never. Always the tomboy.” She quirked a grin. “Long and flowery,” she chuckled, “nice. Margarita means daisy, doesn’t it?”

“See, I knew you were a nerd from day one.”

She smiled. “G’night,  _ Maggie _ ,” she teased.

“Night,  _ Alexandra _ .”

Alex fell asleep smiling broadly.

 

***

 

_ Day 34 _

The next day’s reward challenge split them up into two teams of three and one person to sit on the bench, who wouldn’t even have a chance at a reward. They did a random draw to determine their teams.

On the yellow team was Becky, Francis and Lincoln, while Alex, Margarita and Nicole were on the red team, leaving Aishe on the bench.

The reward was a trip to the Survivor spa, with sandwiches and wraps to eat. They could also get a massage and a shower. To make it even more delightful, they’d spend the night there, in actual beds.

“I want this,” Margarita said clearly to Nicole and Alex. “I  _ need _ this,” she emphasized.

The challenge itself was simple. Two people at a time would run to a mud pit and cover themselves with mud, before coming back to the starting point and swiping the mud off of them, into a bucket. People absolutely had to wait for the partner to be ready to go back to the start as well as to go retrieve more mud. There was to be no carrying of any mud — it was strictly what would stick to their bodies, clothing and hair.

Once they’d filled the bucket with mud, the third person would bring the bucket of mud to a scale. If the delivered mud weighed enough, a puzzle box would open and a geometric shaped puzzle would become available to solve. The first team of three to solve their puzzle won reward.

“All right,” Jeff said, “we’ve got Margarita doing the puzzle for the red team, so we have Alex and Nicole getting mud. For yellow, Francis is on the puzzle, so Becky and Lincoln are getting mud. Survivors ready? Go!”

Alex had stripped down to just her bra and boyshorts for the challenge, as had Nicole, figuring more mud could come off their skin than if some got ingrained in their clothing. She was the second person to reach the mud pit, after Lincoln, and rolled around in it, completely covering herself in the brown muck, including her hair. She crawled to the edge of the pit and waiting until Nicole, with her much longer hair, was ready.

Together, they left the pit and carefully made their way back to the start, while Becky and Lincoln were already back at their bucket.

Once at the start, Nicole started wringing out her hair while Alex brought her leg up to the edge of the bucket. She was just about to slough all the mud off her leg when a pair of hands grasped her thigh and squeezed, sliding down the entire length of her leg, down to her toes. Alex froze at Margarita’s touch.

“Next leg!” she exclaimed, slapping at Alex’s right leg to get her to move it.

“Shit, sorry,” Alex muttered, bringing up her left leg and letting Margarita do the same thing again. Then, while she helped out Nicole with her legs, Alex wrung out her hair and wiped off the mud from her arms, then collected the mud from her chest and stomach and let it slop into the bucket.

“Turn around,” Margarita instructed them both, before cleaning off Nicole’s back. She moved to Alex and placed her hands just below her shoulders and dragged them all the way down her back and, Alex noted with a bit of surprise, down her butt.

They ran back for round two, noting that Lincoln and Becky were already back in the pit.

It took them three rounds to fill the bucket and each time, Margarita helped with their legs and backs. Each time, Alex had to restrain herself from reacting. The touches were anything but soft, but they were intimate. It felt as though Margarita was familiar with her body and she had a pang of longing when Margarita switched over to Nicole. Once done, they watched Margarita bring the bucket to the scale.

Margarita shook her head while looking at the scale. “Not enough!” she called. “Run back!”

Once more, they ran for the pit, coating themselves in the mud as Margarita brought the bucket back to the start. Once more, they went through the motions, but Becky and Lincoln had already brought back enough mud and Francis was on the puzzle. Maggie had just started to clean off Alex’s second leg when Francis called for Jeff.

“Yellow team wins reward!” he cried.

Margarita sighed, her hands slipping slowly from Alex’s leg. “Well, shit.”

“Sorry, Sunshine,” Alex apologized.

“Yeah,” Nicole added.

She stood, shrugging. “Not your fault, we did what we could.”

The four of them who hadn’t won reward headed back to camp, empty-handed, while Becky, Lincoln and Francis were whisked away by boat to the spa.

The first order of business for three of them was to get clean, so all four of them sat in the shallows, chatting, working the mud off themselves and each other. Alex knew that she and Becky wouldn’t have a better chance to bring up the idea of a women’s alliance, so she took a breath and broached the subject.

“What would you ladies think about a women’s alliance?” she asked.

Aishe nodded. “I’m in.”

Margarita and Nicole looked at each other.

“Well, Sunshine?” Alex asked.

“I told you, my final four is solid,” she explained. “Turn around, I’ll help you with your back.”

“Oh,” she said, turning around, “so you’ll wash my back but you’ll still stab me in it?”

“There you go again, showing off your smarts, nerd.”

“Come on, think about it!” she insisted. “It would be  _ Survivor _ history. There has only ever been one all-woman final five before.”

“Was it Micronesia?” asked Nicole.

“Nope, that was four women and Erik,” Alex answered.

Aishe laughed. “That poor dude.”

“Man, Eliza’s face when he gave up individual immunity was just  _ amazing _ ,” Nicole laughed. “If I’m voted out at some point, I can only hope to imitate her facial expressions on the jury.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Nicole,” Margarita said, scraping mud off from Alex’s right shoulder blade. “I’m telling you, our four is solid.”

Alex shrugged. “I thought I’d offer you the chance to make something happen that hasn’t happened since  _ One World _ .”

“Well, thanks, but I don’t really care about that. I care about winning this game,” she said. “My turn.”

Alex turned back around. “Okay,” she said. “Your call. Just so you know, Aishe and Becky and I will vote for Francis if you change your mind. Just putting it out there.” She picked up a handful of wet sand and started washing Maggie’s back as best as she could, trying not to let her touches linger. She tried to focus on the task at hand.

“We’ll see if you still feel so good about your final four after immunity tomorrow, I guess,” Alex said. With that, she stood up and went to the shelter to get the fishing gear. Only the ocean would make her feel better.

Her efforts were relatively successful and the four of them ate fairly well, considering how low they were on rice.

The four of them chatted into the night, getting to know one another better. Alex discovered that Nicole was also a scientist, though she specialized in chemistry. Aishe revealed her weakness for the Barenaked Ladies, one of Alex’s favourite bands. To her surprise, Margarita loved them, too.

Nicole and Aishe turned in, leaving Alex and Margarita chatting by the fire for at least another hour.

“So how did you know you were gay?” Margarita asked.

Alex smiled as she poked at the fire with a stick. “Her name was Vicki Donahue. She was my best friend and she was beautiful and smart and funny, with reddish brown hair and a great laugh.”

“Ah, the best friend route.”

Alex nodded. “It took me a while to figure out why I loved sleeping over at her house… in her room…”

“In her bed?”

Alex blushed and nodded. “Yeah. But I figured it out and confessed my undying love for her and, well, she took it okay, but it definitely wasn’t reciprocated. Mind you," she said, "we're still best friends. How about you?” she asked. “How did you come out?”

“Eliza Wilkie,” she said. “I made the mistake of telling her how I felt and I guess she told her parents and then…” She exhaled. “And then they told my parents.”

“Oh, Margarita.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine.”

“And then your dad… took you to your aunt’s?”

She nodded and Alex could tell, even in the firelight, that Margarita’s eyes were shining with tears.

“That’s a horrible way to be outed,” she said, quietly. “I’m so sorry.”

Margarita shrugged.

Alex swallowed, wanting to comfort her, but unsure if she should.  _ Screw it _ , she thought to herself. She scootched over to Margarita and held out her arms.

She looked at Alex and the tears started. She fell into Alex’s embrace and Alex just held her close while she cried quietly, gently patting her back and holding her close.

“It’s okay,” she said, softly, after a time. “Because my dad was right. Your dad’s a jackass.”

She chuckled at that and pulled back, wiping at her face with her sleeve. “Sorry about that,” she said, “I don’t know… I don’t know why that got to me, all of a sudden. I’m usually pretty okay when it comes up.”

Alex snorted. “You’ve been out here, playing Survivor, for 34 days. You’re sleep-deprived. You’re starving. You have no true friends in this game — none of us do. I think we’re all entitled to feel a bit emotional.”

“Thanks, Alex,” she said. “I mean it. And…” She shut her mouth, obviously thinking better of what she was going to say.

“What?” she asked.

“Well, I mean, I know that we’re not friends in the game. You’re right. We can’t have friends here. But, uh…” She looked down and then raised her eyes to look up at Alex. “I hope we can become friends. After the game.”

Alex smiled. “You mean after I win the million? Sure.”

Margarita elbowed her. “After I win the million.”

“You’re dreaming, Sunshine.” She yawned. “Speaking of dreaming… bedtime for me, I think.”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Margarita said.

Alex made her way to the hammock and got in, pulling her blanket over her. She liked that idea, the thought of them being friends after the game. “You really think we could be friends after being enemies all game long?” she asked Margarita, when the other woman arrived.

Margarita smiled and got in. “I do. Assuming, of course, that I get your jury vote for the money.”

“I told you, if you’re at the final Tribal, I’ll be right there next to you.”

“May the best woman win, then,” she said.

Alex paused. “That mean you’re on board with the women’s alliance?” she asked, knowing it wouldn’t be the case.

“Ha, ha, ha,” she said, sarcastically. “Get some sleep, Alex. Goodnight.”

“Night, Sunshine.”

 

***

 

_ Day 35 _

The four of them arrived at their immunity challenge and then Jeff called in the others to join them.

Becky hugged Alex and whispered to her. “We have to talk.”

Alex tried not to react and simply nodded.

“All right, ready for today’s immunity challenge?” Jeff asked. “Today’s challenge will involve you crawling under a beam through a hole you dig in the sand. Then, you’ll cross a balance beam. Finally, you’ll crawl under a net. After the net, you’ll be shown a board with five pairs of numbers. You’ll then do the course in reverse before you try to unlock a box with three pairs of the numbers. Unlock the box, you’ll get a machete. Cut your rope and be the first to raise your banner and immunity is yours. Guaranteed a one in six shot at winning this game. We’ll draw for spots and then get ready.”

Alex did not feel good about her chances. It wasn’t an endurance challenge and it wasn’t in the water. She looked over at the competition. The boys might struggle at the digging portion. It was really just a toss-up at this point, she felt.

“Survivors ready? Go!” Jeff called, raising his right arm.

All six of them ran to the beam and started digging. Alex took care to dig more than she thought she needed to, particularly as Lincoln got himself stuck partway through.

“Nicole is the first through! She hits the balance beam and runs over it without problem. Lincoln is still stuck. Aishe is now through the first portion!” Jeff was announcing each action.

“Nicole now at the board, looking at the numbers! Margarita, Alex, Becky and Francis are now all attempting the balance beam, as Lincoln finally pulls himself through the sand.”

Alex lightly ran across the beam and headed for her net, crawling through it easily. She popped up and started memorizing numbers. It would be important for her to memorize them all in a single shot if she wanted any chance at all at immunity. Nicole had already made it back through two of the obstacles.

She closed her eyes and recited the numbers to herself, then double-checked on the board, and continued to cycle through them as she mechanically went back through the course.

It didn’t matter. By the time she was pulling herself through her hole again, Nicole had raised her banner.

“Nicole wins immunity!” Jeff cried.

Alex sat up, resting her arms on the beam, her head in her hands. It was not going to be easy to stay.

 

***

 

Back at camp, Becky and Alex walked off together to get water for everyone.

“Oh my God, Francis wants to vote out Margarita tonight,” Becky said, as soon as they were out of earshot.

“Really? So he’s flipping on her?”

Becky nodded. “And offered me her place in his final four.”

Alex raised an eyebrow.

“I leapt on the opportunity, of course, but he doesn’t know that I wouldn’t just abandon you,” she grinned.

“Hm. So if you, me and Aishe team up, we can vote Francis. Francis and Nicole and Lincoln will vote Margarita.” She considered. “Who’s Margarita voting for?”

“You, I’d imagine,” Becky laughed.

Alex chuckled. “Fair point.” She nodded. “Okay, so this is where we use the extra vote, right? I mean, Margarita won’t believe a word I say, but we can save her and get rid of Francis.”

Becky nodded, doing the math. “I think you’re right. The only question is, do we  _ want _ to save Margarita?”

“I think the question is, do we want to let a rat like Francis even get a shot at the million?”

“Do we think we can beat Margarita if it’s us and her at the final three?” Becky countered.

“I think it’d be a toss-up,” Alex said, thinking on it. “You’ve played a solid strategic game. I’ve played a good physical game. She’s played a good social game. I think we’ve all got points in our favour.” She considered. “But you or me easily beat Aishe or Nicole.”

“So we risk it and toss Francis and Lincoln?”

She nodded. “I think so.”

“All right. I’m with you ‘till the end, Alex,” she said.

“Ditto.”

 

***

 

Alex climbed into the hammock and waited for Margarita to show up. She wanted to try, once more, to convince her to come over and form a women’s alliance, without sharing that she knew Francis was after her. After all, if she opened her mouth, then Margarita could go to Francis, who would realize Becky wasn’t loyal and then Alex herself could be voted out. It was important not to let on that she knew Francis was targeting Margarita.

When she arrived at the hammock, Alex moved her legs over and Margarita got in.

“Vote Francis with us tomorrow,” Alex murmured, so as not to be overheard by the group still at the fire.

Margarita snorted. “No.”

Alex sighed. “I promise, I swear to you, your game would be improved by joining us and voting him out tomorrow.”

“Uh huh.”

She sat up. “Margarita. I promise.”

She tilted her head at Alex. “Why? Why are you so intent on this right now?”

She shrugged and leaned back, realizing she’d aroused Margarita’s suspicions. “Because he will inevitably betray you like he did to me and Becky and Matteo.”

“So you and Becky and, what, Aishe, are voting for him tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“So say I vote him and he goes, Alex. Then what, after I lose my numbers advantage?” she challenged. “Then it’d be you three against me, Lincoln and Nicole. And you have an extra vote.”

“Then, we vote out Lincoln,” Alex said. “And it’s just the five of us women and, as you said, may the best woman win.”

Margarita shook her head. “I trust my group.”

“And you and your group, what, are going to vote me out tomorrow?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But that’s where you’re leaning, I bet,” Alex said. “What’s the matter, tired of sharing a bed with me?”

“Definitely. I’d vote you out just to claim this hammock as mine,” she grinned.

“Fine,” she sighed, “do what you want,” she said, tugging her part of the blanket towards her. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Margarita replied.

“Sweet dreams, Sunshine.”

“You too, Alex.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Survivor YouTube links to give you some context. Open in a new tab to come back here easily. :)
> 
> Two examples of a Survivor Auction:  
> [Auction 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxVC3A1Gndo)  
> [Auction 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd3r-THn988)
> 
>  
> 
> [Mud Slinging / Loved Ones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPn1fRfRuQg)
> 
>  
> 
> [Survivor Water Balance Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj9ehvWixDA)
> 
>  
> 
> [Three Amigos Not Going Home](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg692muemco)
> 
>  
> 
> [Survivor Mud Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35mGutGM0xM)


	4. Day 36 - Reunion Show

_ Day 36 _

Alex didn’t try to convince Margarita that day before Tribal Council. Instead, she went fishing and spent some time on the beach, gazing out at the gorgeous waters. Of course, she finalized things with Becky surreptitiously and confirmed with Aishe that they’d all vote out Francis.

They walked into Tribal Council and took their spots.

“We’ll bring in the members of the jury,” Jeff said. “Noah, Matteo and Peter, voted out at the last Tribal Council,” he said as they filed in and took their seats.

“Alex,” Jeff said, sitting down himself, “why don’t you start us off? Last time, you and Becky were both immune. What about tonight? I only see one immunity necklace out and no idols in plain sight.”

“Sure, Jeff,” she said. “Last time, we felt that Becky could be a target, so we used the idol to protect her. Tonight, we feel like Aishe will join us in our vote.”

“Last time, you said openly that you and Becky were voting for Francis. Does that hold true tonight?”

“It absolutely does. I will continue to vote against Francis until either he’s out or I am.”

“Interesting. Francis, what does this mean for you?”

“I mean, that’s what, three votes? We have four in our alliance. I feel confident enough in my alliance to say that I am not going home tonight,” he smirked.

“Margarita, one could say that you’ve been leading the Beauty alliance. How has Francis joining you affected your play?”

“He’s proved himself to us and has allowed us to take out a physical threat like Peter,” she said, waving over at Peter on the jury, who just glared. “We like having him with us.”

“But that’s arguably alienated Aishe,” Jeff pointed out.

“Arguably? Hell yes, it’s alienated Aishe,” Aishe herself agreed. “I’m happy to vote with Becky and Alex to get Francis out of the game.”

“Why me?” laughed Francis.

“Because you flipped on us and that’s why Matteo’s sitting on that bench!” Becky argued, pointing at the jury.

“And why Peter’s over there!” Aishe chimed in.

“One could say that it’s good gameplay that allowed me to put them over there,” said Francis.

“Or a good alliance,” added Margarita.

“Absolutely,” Francis said, “I wouldn’t be here without my alliances. New and old.”

Alex reserved her reaction to that, but glanced at Margarita. No, she hadn’t caught the hidden reference to a new alliance. Margarita must have been thinking that she was still part of Francis’ “new” alliance.

“With that,” Jeff said, standing, “it’s time to vote. Alex, you’re up.”

She smiled, stood and headed over to the voting area and wrote down FRANCIS on both the parchment that lay in front of her as well as the one that was to be her extra vote. She held up the first. “This one is because you flipped on us,” she said, putting it down. “And this,” she said, picking up her second vote, “this is because you thought you could use me and Becky to vote out Margarita.” She put both votes into the urn and replaced the lid.

They all took their turns in voting, then Jeff went to collect them. Alex was remarkably calm, despite the fact she didn’t have the immunity necklace on her. Well, she was calm until Jeff revealed the first vote.

“Alex.”

She swallowed. Either that was Margarita’s lone vote or everything had gone awry and she was being blindsided. As always, seeing her name caused any uncertainties she might have to be magnified and she wouldn’t feel relaxed until after all the votes were read.

“Second vote, Margarita. We’re tied, one vote Alex, one vote Margarita.”

He pulled out another vote. “Francis. We’re still tied, one vote Alex, one vote Margarita, one vote Francis.”

Alex held her breath as he pulled another vote.

“Margarita. Two votes Margarita, one vote Alex, one vote Francis.”

Jeff reached into the urn for another one. “Francis. We’re tied again. Two votes Margarita, two votes Francis, one vote Alex.”

She let herself breathe, since the second of the Francis votes wasn’t in her handwriting. Things might work out. They  _ should _ work out.

“Margarita. Three votes Margarita, two votes Francis, one vote Alex.”

Alex looked at Margarita. She was frowning and Alex could tell she was doing the math in her head.

“Francis. Tied again, three votes Margarita, three votes Francis, one vote Alex, one vote left.”

There was a murmur at that. Alex glanced at the jury and Matteo smiled at her and gave her the thumbs up. He’d figured out that she’d used the extra vote.

“The twelfth person voted out of Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty 3, and the fourth member of our jury, Francis. Francis, please bring me your torch.”

Alex beamed and high-fived Becky and Aishe, while Margarita just stared in shock. Francis grabbed his torch and slammed it down into the spot for Jeff, clearly upset.

“Francis, the tribe has spoken. It’s time for you to go.” Jeff snuffed the torch and Francis stalked off into the jungle without so much as a goodbye.

“Well,” he said, addressing the six of them, “I think it’s fair to say that tribal lines keep getting rewritten. Something to think about as we approach the end of the game. Grab your stuff and head back to camp."

Alex was exuberant, as were Becky and Aishe, celebrating their victory in voting out Francis, chatting animatedly about how great it was to get rid of him and get their revenge for Matteo as well as Peter. She was still aware, of course, that Margarita was quiet and so were Lincoln and Nicole. She decided not to rub Margarita’s nose in it and let the other woman come to her first.

They got back to camp and Alex headed right for her hammock. The adrenaline had worn off by then and had left her wiped out. She clambered in and Margarita joined her silently a few minutes later.

Alex decided to break the silence. “How are you feeling?”

“Feeling a little like I got kicked in the gut,” she admitted. “Or maybe the face.”

Alex inhaled through her teeth. “Yeah, I get that,” she said. “You want to talk about it a bit?”

“Not really,” she said. “I, uh, I wish I could just go home, have a couple of drinks and lose my cool.”

She reached out and squeezed Margarita’s knee, gently. “I’m here, if you want to talk. Okay?”

“Thanks,” she said.

Alex patted her leg and then folded her hands across her stomach. “You’re not alone, Sunshine,” she said. “G’night.”

“Night.”

 

***

 

_ Day 37 _

Alex had done the math. She knew that they needed to eliminate three people before the final day. That meant at least one elimination that day and at least one the next, though they absolutely had to end with four people by the end of voting at Tribal Council the following night, so that they could do the fire-making challenge at the final four. It was going to be a rough final slog, but at least she felt relatively confident that they could get rid of Lincoln, with or without Margarita’s help.

They were instructed to head out for a challenge around midday. Though production wouldn’t say which kind of challenge, Alex knew it would be for immunity.

“Welcome,” Jeff said, as the six of them stood assembled on their mat, “to Day 37. Today’s challenge will consist of you working to untangle some ropes. Untangling them will release a key. You’ll use this key to open a chest. Within the chest will be sixteen differently sized and shaped ladder rungs. You’ll place the ladder rungs, one by one, in order, until you get to the top of the structure. Once there, you’ll have to solve a slide puzzle. First player to solve their puzzle after having correctly built their ladder, wins.” He smiled. “Wanna know what you’re playing for?”

Alex raised an eyebrow at that. They were playing for immunity, weren’t they?

“The winner will get delicious, hot, gooey pizza delivered to them at camp. Oh, and there’s also this little thing,” he said, pulling a sheet down to reveal the immunity necklace. “The winner also wins immunity, is safe from tonight’s vote and is guaranteed a one in five shot to win a million dollars and the title of Sole Survivor. Worth playing for?”

The six of them cheered loudly.

“We’ll draw for spots and then get started,” Jeff said, heading over to them.

“Survivors ready?” called Jeff. “Go!”

Alex ran to her bunch of ropes and began unbraiding the larger ones. She got into a good rhythm, the ropes whipping around freely, then she spotted the key. Its keyring was embedded in smaller braid within one of the large ropes. She methodically unbraided the large rope and released the key, though Lincoln had beaten her through to the chest and Margarita was right behind her. Alex focused, pulling the pieces out of the chest, looking carefully at the widths and lengths and the size and shape of the indentations where the runs would fit on the structure.

“Lincoln, Alex and Margarita have opened their chests. Remember, you have to put the rungs on  _ in order _ ,” Jeff stressed.

“Fuck,” muttered Alex, as she bent to examine the first spot more carefully.

“Lincoln tries and fails on the first one, while Nicole and Becky are now on the chests. Aishe is just now getting her key. Margarita is trying a first piece and it fits!”

Alex tried two pieces before she got a match. By the time she was halfway done, Margarita was almost all the way done, Lincoln only had a couple left and the other three hadn’t yet caught up to Alex.

“Lincoln finishes his ladder first!” called Jeff. “He moves on to the puzzle!”

Margarita raced up her ladder with her final rung and slotted it into place. “Margarita gets the ladder done, she moves on to the puzzle!”

Alex was tired as she climbed up with another rung, knowing she had at least three more to place. At least she was relatively confident she had the right piece.

By the time she got to the top, Margarita was zipping through the puzzle, sliding pieces around with confidence. Lincoln, at least, looked completely confused. Alex took a breath and gave it a shot, though slide puzzles were never her strength. She made good progress, having easily identified the image as being the season’s logo. She was nearly finished when she realized she had two pieces in the wrong place. She groaned inwardly. She’d need to redo part of it.

“Jeff!” shouted Margarita.

He ran over to inspect it. “Margarita wins immunity!” he called.

Alex leaned forward over her table, slumping in defeat, resting her forehead against her forearms, while Lincoln sat down and leaned back against his table.

Moments later, back down on the ground, Jeff awarded Margarita the immunity necklace. She smiled hugely, showing off those dimples of hers and Alex couldn’t help but smile back.

“Margarita’s got immunity and is safe at Tribal Council tonight,” Jeff said. “You’ll also get fresh, hot, delicious pizza delivered to you at camp. But it’s not really a pizza party with just one person, is it? Margarita, choose one other person to join you.”

Alex was legitimately surprised when her name came from Margarita’s lips.

“All right, pizza coming for both you and Alex. Grab your stuff, head back to camp, we’ll see you tonight at Tribal,” he said, dismissing them.

Alex went right up to Margarita. “Uh, not that I’m, you know, complaining,” she said, “but why me?”

“You let me see my tia,” she said, simply.

 

***

 

The pizza was amazing. It was accompanied by beer and soda. Seated a ways from camp, Margarita and Alex sat down to eat. They clinked beer bottles and both took deep drinks before starting in on devouring the pizzas in front of them.

“This is amazing,” Alex said, around a mouthful of food.

Margarita nodded. “I really needed a cold beer, too,” she said.

They ate quietly for a bit, chatting about the food, favourite restaurants, food they missed from home, before Alex ventured to broach the topic of the vote. “So, who are you thinking of voting off tonight?” she asked.

Margarita chuckled and swallowed her mouthful of pizza. “Is this where you come to me asking me to form that women’s alliance?”

Alex grinned. “Maybe,” she said, taking a mouthful of beer.

“Well, the way I see it,” Margarita explained, “I have, on one hand, two people who tried to vote me off and who have backstabbed me.”

Alex nodded.

“And, on the other hand, three people I don’t trust in the least, most of whom I’ve actively tried to eliminate myself.” She took another swig of beer. “I can’t trust any of you.”

She considered that with another long pull at the beer bottle. “I guess that’s fair. Except that I tried to warn you.”

“No,” she laughed, “warning me would be saying ‘hey, Margarita, by the way, Francis is gunning for you’.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Alex argued, shaking her head. “If you found out, then he’d find out and then you’d all vote me out.”

“Right. And? I’d still be in the game,” she grinned.

“But so would Francis,” Alex said, “and he’d still be out for you. Face it, Sunshine, the only reason you’re still in this game is because I played my extra vote to break the tie and vote him out.”

“You didn’t vote him out to save me,” she challenged, “you voted him out for vengeance.”

She shrugged. “Maybe I voted for Francis for both reasons.”

Margarita leaned back against the nearby tree trunk and raised an eyebrow at her. “No. You didn’t. We’re enemies, remember? I tried to vote you out last night.”

“And yet, I saved you.” She shrugged and snagged another piece of pizza. “Look, I’m voting Lincoln tonight, and so are Becky and Aishe. That’s our plan. Either you vote with us or you vote with them and there’s a deadlock.” She took a bite.

“Unless there’s an idol in play.”

“You have an idol?”

“I’m just saying, I might know who has one.”

“Get out, no one has one,” Alex said, waving her hand disdainfully.

“Are you willing to risk your position in the game on that?”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not going to vote with you,” she said.

“And who are you voting for?”

“You.”

Alex sputtered on her beer. “Me? Why me?”

“You’ve played a great game, Alex,” Margarita said, before taking a bite of pizza and chewed. “I’d be foolish not to vote for you. Though it still might end up at rocks.” She took another drink of beer. “Tribal Council’s going to be interesting tonight, that’s for sure.”

They finished their meal shortly thereafter and Becky, Aishe and Alex all went for a walk for water.

“So she flat-out told you that she was voting against you?” Becky asked, confused.

“Yes.”

“Do you believe her?” asked Aishe.

“I don’t know, honestly,” she said, grumpily.

“Well, either Lincoln or Nicole has an idol,” Becky said, “she all but admitted it.”

“She is so  _ infuriating _ !” Alex complained as she trudged down along the path.

That night, at Tribal Council, they had the first tied vote of the season, with three votes for each Alex and Lincoln.

“Okay, here’s how we do this,” Jeff said. “We’ll revote. Alex will not vote. Lincoln will not vote. The rest of you may  _ only _ vote for Alex or Lincoln.” He handed the urn to Margarita. “You’re up,” he said.

A few tense minutes passed and soon Jeff was tallying the votes again. And, once again, it was a tie, with two votes for each Alex and Lincoln.

“Here’s what we do now,” Jeff said. “Margarita, Nicole, Aishe and Becky will have an open discussion as to who should go. If they can come up with a  _ unanimous _ decision between Lincoln and Alex, that person gets voted out. If they can’t, we have a deadlock. In a deadlock, the two tied players become immune and the remaining non-immune players will draw rocks where the person who picks the black rock gets voted out.”

“Nicole, Margarita,” Becky started in, “vote Lincoln out. Why not vote him out? Let’s make this all-women’s final five happen.”

“What, and potentially let Alex win immunity tomorrow? We can’t let her into the final three,” said Nicole, “she’ll beat us all.”

“No, it’s Margarita we can’t let into the final three,” argued Aishe. “And Alex is our best chance to keep Margarita from winning immunity.”

Margarita considered. “I’m a woman without an alliance,” she said, “but Lincoln did screw me over. So I’d be willing to switch my vote from Alex.”

“Oh, so  _ now _ you decide to consider swapping your vote,” Alex grumbled. “ _ After _ a revote.”

“Swapping your vote now is strategic,” Margarita pointed out. “Doing it on a revote is a chicken move.”

“Doing it on a revote doesn’t have as much drama to it,” Becky said with a chuckle. “She’s obviously posturing for the jury.”

“Who, moi?” she asked, grinning.

“And, she has nothing to lose by forcing a deadlock,” agreed Aishe. “She has immunity. She’s not going to draw rocks.”

Nicole frowned. “Well, shit, I didn’t think about that. There’s no way I’m drawing rocks. And,” she added, “I also don’t want Margarita to get credit for this. I’m changing my vote to Lincoln.”

Lincoln’s jaw dropped. “What?!”

“You heard me,” she said. “And besides, with you out, I have a better chance of winning immunity.”

Jeff stepped in. “So, are we unanimous? Nicole, you and Margarita are now voting for Lincoln?”

“Yes,” said Nicole.

“I suppose,” said Margarita, nonchalantly, perhaps a bit annoyed that her showing off wasn’t going to have the intended effect.

“Becky, Aishe?”

“I vote Lincoln.”

“Lincoln,” said Aishe.

“It’s unanimous,” declared Jeff. “Lincoln, you’re the thirteenth person voted out of the game and the fifth member of the jury. Please bring me your torch.”

Scowling, he brought it to Jeff and didn’t even wait for it to be snuffed before leaving the set.

“Well, ladies, you’ve put five men in a row on the jury,” Jeff said, “and I can’t imagine any of them are happy about it. Grab your stuff and head out. We’ll see you tomorrow. G’night.”

Back at camp, Alex got into her hammock, soon to be joined by Margarita.

“Interesting move,” she said, as Margarita climbed in.

“Hm?”

“Amping up the drama to let the jury see that you understand the mechanics of the game extremely well and can use them to your advantage.”

She grinned. “I told you, people discount me based on my looks. I have to make it obvious for dummies like those guys to actually see that I have a brain.”

Alex nodded. “I get it. You weren’t actually out to get me out — you just wanted to make a production of it.”

“Clever girl,” Margarita chuckled.

“What am I, a raptor?”

“Damn, nerd, you do know your 90s movie trivia.”

“Of course I do.” She tugged the blanket back her way a bit. “Of course, I definitely prefer the quote about dinosaur eating man and woman inheriting the world," she smiled.

"That's definitely a good line," she agreed.

Alex sighed. "On a serious note, I’m pretty sure that whichever one of us doesn’t win immunity tomorrow gets the boot.”

“You’re probably right,” Margarita admitted. “It’ll be nice to have the hammock to myself, tomorrow night.”

Alex smacked Margarita’s leg under the blanket. “I think you mean that  _ I _ think it’ll be nice to have the hammock to  _ myself _ , tomorrow night.”

“May the best woman win,” she smiled.

“May the best woman win,” Alex smiled back. “Night, Sunshine.”

“Goodnight, Alex.”

 

***

 

_ Day 38 _

The immunity challenge was a massive maze, with six stations, each containing a bag of puzzle pieces. The players had to navigate the maze and then get a bag, drop that off at their workstation at the start of the maze, then go back out to get the next. The first player to finish their puzzle would win individual immunity and be safe from the vote that night. The puzzle was three-dimensional and a completed puzzle would display the image and be completely flat, he warned.

They all lined up at the start and took off on Jeff’s cue.

It was hot out and the maze was enormous. Alex dropped from a run to a quick walk, still trying to get to any of her bags of puzzle pieces before the others, but not wearing herself out. Nicole and Becky got theirs before Alex got hers, but Alex beat them to the maze’s exit. Margarita had gone long, going for one of the sets of pieces at the end of the maze and Alex frowned, wondering if that made sense. They crossed paths as Margarita re-entered the maze after depositing her first bag while Alex brought back her second. It wouldn’t be like Margarita to make a tactical mistake. Theoretically, it should all take the same amount of time. She dropped off her second bag and headed out for one of the far ones. At the very least, having shorter distances to travel for the last couple of bags would be useful.

Becky, Nicole and Aishe were all out getting their fifth bags as Margarita headed out for her sixth. Alex deposited her fifth and ran out hard to get the sixth. Margarita would get back first, for sure. She’d outsmarted them, by going for the far ones while she was still fresh. The miscalculation could be a million dollar mistake on Alex’s part, as her last bag was one of the two bags placed at a medium distance, though not as far out as the others’ last bags. She picked it up and saw Margarita jogging at a relaxed pace through the mouth of the maze, dropping her final bag by her workstation.

“Margarita has all her bags! Everyone else is out retrieving their last bags,” announced Jeff.

Alex charged back towards the start of the maze, nearly getting caught going the other way by mistake. She finally made it out and Margarita had already emptied all of her pieces on to the large workstation. Alex started untying knots, flying through them. It was her or Margarita tonight, she felt, knowing she couldn’t rely on Nicole and she wondered if Aishe would stand with her and Becky or not. No, she  _ had _ to win to be certain she’d stay.

It was a 42 piece puzzle, as each of the six bags held seven pieces. Alex barely even knew where to start. The pieces were uneven and she had to build layers into it. It would be completely flat when finished, she remembered from the instructions prior to the start. She turned to look over at Margarita and saw Margarita’s back to her. She scowled. Margarita was on the end, so she was standing to the side of her workstation to shield her puzzle from the prying eyes of other players.

_ Son of a bitch, _ Alex thought to herself and threw herself into the puzzle.

It was complex, to say the least. Every time she thought she had it, a couple of pieces would stick up through the top, forcing her to start over again.

The others had also started in on their puzzles, but Margarita had the lead and never relinquished it. “Jeff!” she said, raising her arms.

“Margarita wins immunity!” Jeff shouted.

Alex slammed the palm of her hand against the workstation in frustration. “Shit,” she muttered to herself.

 

***

 

Back at camp, Margarita was in the shelter, Alex in her hammock, while the others were out on the beach.

“Hey, Alex, c’mere,” she called.

“What?” she asked, annoyed. “I’m trying to enjoy my last few hours here.”

“Just… would you just get  _ over here _ , nerd?” she said, from the shelter. “Jesus,” she muttered, in frustration.

With an exaggerated sigh, Alex sat up and got out of the hammock, walking over to the shelter. She leaned on a tree, arms folded. “Yes?”

Margarita looked up at her and opened her backpack. She reached in and pulled something out and handed it to Alex.

She furrowed her brow. “Is this…?”

“An idol. It’s a hidden immunity idol, Alex.”

She frowned. “Well, it’s not a fucking stick, but how do I know it’s not a fake? Where’s the note?”

“I tossed it. It would be too conspicuous.”

Alex sighed. “If I play this, am I going home, Margarita? Be honest.” It couldn’t actually be a hidden immunity idol, could it? Why would her biggest competitor be giving her immunity?

“Look, Alex,” she said, standing up and approaching her. “I could either go home with a nice souvenir, or I could make sure that a good player who hasn’t backstabbed me actually gets a chance to play for a million dollars.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “You could just vote with us to take out Nicole if you don’t want me to go home.”

Margarita raised her eyebrow at her. “You’re smarter than that.”

“Ah,” Alex said, the pieces sliding together with a click in her head. “You can’t vote against her so you can still get her jury vote. But you can give me an idol so that we still manage to vote Nicole out.”

She smiled. “Smart chicks are so hot,” she said, walking away, leaving Alex confused as hell. Not about the idol, but about her comment.

Naturally, Alex told Becky all about the idol.

“More jury posturing,” she said, nodding. “She tries, you gotta give her that. Assuming it’s real, of course.”

“Here’s hoping,” she said, pocketing it again.

 

***

 

Finally, they were at Tribal and the votes were being counted. Jeff returned with the urn.

“If anyone has a hidden immunity idol and would like to play it, now would be the time to do so. Remember, this is also the last time you can play an idol.”

Alex nodded and stood. “Jeff?” She walked over to him and brandished the idol Margarita had given her. “I’d like to play this for myself tonight,” she said, her hand shaking.  _ Oh please let it be real, _ she thought, for the millionth time.

He nodded and took it from her as she walked back to her seat. “This  _ is _ a hidden immunity idol,” he confirmed and she exhaled in relief. “Any votes cast for Alex will not count. I’ll read the votes.”

He pulled out the first piece of parchment. “Nicole.”

Alex nodded to herself. She was safe. No matter what, even if it had been misplayed, she was  _ safe _ . Guaranteed a one in four chance at the million dollars.

“Alex. Does not count.”

He pulled another vote out. “Nicole. Two votes Nicole.” He pulled the next out. “Alex. Does not count. That’s enough. The fourteenth player voted out of the game and the sixth member of our jury is Nicole. Please bring me your torch.”

She sighed and picked up her torch and brought it over to Jeff. “The tribe has spoken,” he said, snuffing the torch. “It’s time for you to take your seat on the jury.”

She frowned, but headed over to the jury, instead of exiting the Tribal Council area, as most people did.

“What the hell?” asked Aishe.

“We’re going to have an immunity challenge right here, right now,” Jeff said, “because there’s one more jury seat to be filled.”

Alex raised her eyebrows. She’d known that they’d need to whittle people down to three, but an immunity challenge  _ at _ Tribal Council? That was exceedingly rare.

“I’ll take back the necklace, please, Margarita,” he said.

She unlatched it from her neck and handed it to him.

“For the last time,” he said, “individual immunity is back up for grabs. You’ve been out here for 38 days. Let’s see how well you know your fellow tribemates.”

“Oh shit,” Becky cursed.

Jeff handed them each a chalkboard slate and a piece of chalk. “You get a point for each right answer. First person to ten points wins immunity, gets to pick who goes with them to the final three, while the remaining two make fire to earn their way to the final three.”

“Oh God, we’re going to do all that tonight?!” asked Aishe.

“Yep,” Jeff said. “Survivors ready?”

They nodded.

“First question: Where did Margarita grow up?”

Alex blinked rapidly. She knew this. It was a tiny town. In Nebraska. Where the hell was it? Water Springs? Blue Water? Blue Springs? She scribbled down an answer.

“Reveal,” Jeff said.

“The correct answer is Blue Springs, Nebraska. Margarita gets a point, Alex gets a point. No points for either Becky or Aishe.”

“Next question: What is Alex’s occupation?”

She wrote down biologist and waited for the instruction to show their answers.

“Reveal.” Jeff looked at the answers. “The correct answer is biologist. Margarita gets a point, Alex gets a point, Becky gets a point.” He turned to his next card. “Question three: how old is Becky?”

Alex wrote her answer quickly, knowing that Becky was 27.

“Reveal.” He looked across their boards. “The correct answer is 27. Margarita gets a point, Alex gets a point, Becky gets a point. So far, Margarita and Alex are three for three. Becky has two points, zip for Aishe."

Aishe glared at him for that one.

“Question four: What is Aishe’s sister’s name?”

Alex paused. She had no earthly idea. She knew she’d been there at the challenge, but she’d come out after her dad had. She hadn’t paid any real attention to her. She sighed and wrote something down.

“Reveal,” he said. “The correct answer is Miriam. Margarita gets a point, Alex does not, Becky does not, Aishe gets on the board.”

“I’d be pretty worried if I didn’t know that one, Jeff,” she grinned.

He smiled and then continued. “Question five: What is Margarita’s occupation?”

Alex wrote it down quickly.

“Reveal,” he instructed. “The correct answer is public defender, but we’ll also accept lawyer. Everyone gets a point. Margarita is five for five, Alex has four points, Becky has three and Aishe has two.”

Alex nodded to herself. She had a chance.

“Question six: What is Alex’s dad’s name?”

She smiled and wrote it down quickly, then revealed on Jeff’s command.

“The correct answer is Jeremiah. Margarita, Alex and Becky get points. Aishe does not.” He flipped cards. “Next question, number seven: what’s Becky’s mom’s name?”

Alex wrote that one down quickly, too. Everyone got that one right.

“Margarita is seven for seven. Alex is at six points, Becky at five, Aishe at three. Next question is number eight: what’s Aishe’s occupation?”

Alex scribbled it down, remembering it from a conversation back at Viribus.

“Reveal,” instructed Jeff. “The correct answer is manager of a fitness club.” He looked at the answers. “Margarita misses her first question. Alex gets a point, Becky and Aishe get points. Margarita and Alex are tied at seven, Becky making gains with six and Aishe has four. Next question, number nine: what is Margarita’s aunt’s name?”

Yet another one that was easy for Alex, though at least Margarita and Becky would also get that one right, without a doubt. Jeff confirmed they all got points on that one. “Question ten,” he said, “what colour rock did Alex select to break the tie for the advantage during the auction?”

Alex wrote the answer down quickly.

“Reveal,” he said. “The correct answer is red. Margarita and Becky are wrong, Alex and Aishe are right. Alex is in the lead with nine, followed by Margarita and Becky at eight, Aishe in last at six.”

Alex took a breath.

“Question eleven, where did Becky grow up?”

She frowned. It was Canada. She knew it was Canada. But, she reasoned, Jeff would want them to be specific. Where the hell in Canada was she from? It was west, she thought, something about cows? She wrote down a guess.

“Reveal,” Jeff said. “The correct answer is Calgary, Alberta, Canada,” he said. “Margarita gets a point, Becky gets a point.”

“You thought I was from  _ Edmonton _ !?” Becky elbowed Alex.

“Sorry, I remembered cows, but didn’t remember it was Calgary,” she apologized.

“Margarita and Alex both at nine points, Becky at eight points, Aishe at six. Question twelve, how old is Aishe?”

Alex realized she didn’t have the foggiest idea. She wrote down a number and hoped for the best.

“Alex or Margarita could win it right here,” he said. “Reveal.” He looked at the answers. “The correct answer is 33,” he said. “Becky and Aishe get points. We have a three-way tie at 9 with Aishe at seven. Question thirteen, where does Margarita currently live?”

Alex smiled as she wrote down the correct answer.

Jeff confirmed that she and Margarita both got it. “Okay, tie-breaker, for Alex and Margarita only: who was the very first person voted out of this season?”

Alex froze. She didn’t know. She knew it wasn’t a Brain. Had it been a Brawn or a Beauty? She remembered with a flash of insight that it had been a Beauty, because she’d been pleased when she’d realized it hadn’t been Margarita, but she had no idea what her name was. She wrote down “The Beauty girl who wasn’t Margarita or Nicole” and hoped for the best.

“Reveal,” Jeff said, then he laughed. “She has a  _ name _ , Alex,” he chided her, “and her name is Holly, which Margarita knew. Margarita wins immunity!”

She shrugged. “I tried,” she grinned.

“All right, Margarita,” he said, “you have an important decision to make. Who are you taking with you to the final three?”

She looked around. “I’m going to take Becky,” she said.

Becky looked more surprised than anyone. “Thanks,” she said.

Aishe looked super disappointed. “This is your fault, Francis,” she called to him.

“All right, Alex, Aishe, you’ll now try to make fire.” Production assistants brought in the fire-making stations. “You both have a bunch of coconut husks for tinder, some small twigs and kindling, then some larger sticks. You need to create a fire that will burn through the string that’s strung up at a height of 18 inches from the base of your station. Once the string burns through, the flag pops up. The first player to do so becomes the third in the final three and the loser goes to the jury.”

A few moments later, they were seated at their stations.

“Survivors ready? Go!” he called.

Alex organized some of her coconut husk in the center part of her station, then she started chipping away at the flint with the knife, coating the tinder with it, before she started hacking away at the flint to produce sparks. She’d done it many times before at camp, but never under so much pressure. Finally, the tinder caught and she blew gently on it, encouraging the embers to form a flame. She added more husk and a couple of small twigs, one of which finally caught. She exhaled in relief and started piling the twigs in a pyramid formation, then building some larger sticks in a pyramid over that one. Soon, Alex had a roaring fire that was almost high enough to burn through the string. She noted that Aishe had a decent fire, too, and it was tall and growing. Carefully, Alex added another stick to the fire, angling it up a bit. It caught and she watched as the flames slowly moved closer and closer to the string.

Finally, her string caught fire and it snapped, raising the small flag.

“Alex wins fire-making!” Jeff announced, raising his hands, just as Aishe’s own fire snapped her string.

Alex shook hands with Aishe. “Good game,” she said.

“Nice fire,” Aishe said. “You won fair and square.”

“All right. Alex, you’ll join Margarita and Becky in the final three. Tomorrow night, the power shifts to the jury,” he said, “including Aishe. Get a good night’s sleep and start thinking about what you’ll have to say to the very people you voted out tomorrow night, while trying to convince them that you deserve a million dollars. Grab your stuff and head out.”

The three of them headed back to camp and started up the fire again.

“That was a close fire-making contest,” Margarita said. “I really wasn’t sure who would win.”

“I told you, Sunshine,” Alex grinned, as she gently laid more kindling on the campfire, “if you were going to be there at the final Tribal Council, I’d be right there next to you.”

“I guess you did warn me,” she smiled.

“We made it,” Becky said, high-fiving Alex. “From that moment ten minutes in on the beach to now, we made it!” She grabbed the canteens. “Just gonna go grab some water before bed.”

“Sounds good,” Alex said.

Margarita looked at her across the fire. “The game’s almost over.”

“Well, it’s basically over, isn’t it?” Alex asked. “No more challenges. Just talking to the jury, answering their questions, pleading our cases.”

“Still fighting one another for the million, though.”

“Which we won’t even know if we won for what, another ten months?” Alex said.

“Yeah, something like that.” She rubbed at her chin with her index finger.

“What?”

“Hm?”

“You’re thinking,” Alex said. “I know that look.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I was thinking.”

“About what?”

“Tomorrow. The feast in the morning. Spending all day rehearsing what I’m going to say.”

Alex nodded. “The physical challenge is almost over,” she said, “but the mental one continues.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Well, look, I’m going to turn in. You, uh… You can have the hammock to yourself, I suppose,” she smiled. “If you want.”

“Oh,” Alex said, trying not to appear as disappointed as she felt. “Uh, I mean, you know, I don’t, uh, I don’t mind. I’m kind of used to you at this point,” she smiled.

Margarita chuckled. “All right. Wake me when you come to bed.”

Alex swallowed and nodded. “All right.” The idea of truly sharing a bed with the other woman never failed to elicit a reaction from her.

When Becky came back, they chatted for a bit, but Alex decided to get some sleep not long after. It would be an early morning, after all, and a long day.

“Did Margarita steal the hammock?” she asked. “You can sleep in the shelter with me, if you want. There are going to be so many pillows and blankets!” she grinned.

“Uh, you know, I think it’s fine, I’ll share with her,” she said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, uh, it’s, you know, the bamboo, it’s super hard on my back,” she said.

“Ah, okay,” replied Becky. “Have a good night. See you in the morning for the feast.”

“Yeah,” Alex smiled. “I’ve loved playing with you, Becky,” she said. “Good luck tomorrow.”

“You too, Alex.”

She stood and headed to the hammock and lightly tapped Margarita on the shoulder. “Move over,” she said.

She did so and Alex stretched out in the hammock, Margarita’s warm legs against her, her own legs against the other woman’s side. She tugged the blanket over her. “You know something?”

“Hm?”

“I’ve had fun with you as my nemesis,” Alex smiled.

“Me too,” she said. “It’s been good playing with you… or, I guess, more accurately, against you.”

“I’m, uh, looking forward to hanging out with you outside the game,” she said, a bit shyly. “You know, when we’re home.”

“I think it’ll be fun,” Margarita agreed. “Get some sleep. The sooner you sleep, the sooner you feast.”

Alex chuckled. “Goodnight, then, Sunshine.”

“Goodnight, Alex.”

 

***

 

_ Day 39 _

The feast was amazing. Eggs, bread, fruits, vegetables, hash browns, bacon, orange juice and champagne, along with butter and jams awaited them.

The first order of business was, of course, making mimosas. Becky handed Margarita and Alex each a champagne flute filled with orange juice and champagne and then picked up her own.

“To the Final Three and to Day 39!” she said, grinning widely.

They all clinked glasses and took healthy swallows before starting to fry up some eggs and other ingredients to make omelets.

They spent the rest of the day mostly apart. Margarita had made herself comfortable on a far portion of the beach, while Becky was pacing around camp. Alex, of course, spent much of the day in the water.

Once more, that evening, they headed to Tribal Council, their speeches bouncing around in their heads, trying to make sure they had the perfect arguments for why they, and not the other two, should be awarded the million dollars and the title of Sole Survivor.

Alex barely heard Jeff’s pronouncements at Tribal Council, but she knew he was talking about how the power had now shifted to the jury of seven who would decide which among the three of them would win the million. She was going over and over her arguments in her head and hoped that she could get them out coherently.

“Becky, why don’t you start us off?” Jeff asked.

She nodded and turned to the jury. “Brains don’t typically do all that well in this kind of a game,” she began. “Weak people, particularly weak women, generally get voted out early on, and weak tribes go to Tribal Council more often than the stronger ones.” She smiled. “And yet, here I am, on Day 39. So how did I get here?” She nodded. “Good question. On day one, I formed alliances with Alex and Francis.”

Alex blinked at that. She hadn’t been aware that Becky had been allied with Francis.

“It was these alliances, which I held on to, that allowed me to get here. With Alex, we orchestrated a good number of eliminations, including Ryan and Francis. Using my old alliance with Francis, I was able to gain his trust after he’d betrayed us, when we were on reward together with Lincoln at the spa, and was able to use the knowledge he shared against him. Strategizing with Alex, we elected to use her extra vote advantage and take him out. This also saved Margarita, which is a reason I feel she selected me to be in the final three with her.” She paused for a moment. “I didn’t win much. I didn’t win immunity, I won a black rock for $500 at the auction and I only had a couple of rewards. I made it here without a ton of advantages and I made it here by properly executing strategy and making use of strategic alliances that began ten minutes after we arrived at our beach. I have outwitted, I have outlasted and, ultimately, I think I have outplayed.”

“Thanks, Becky. Alex?”

She smiled at him and turned to face the jury. “Like Becky, I didn’t know what would be in store for us as the Brains tribe. I knew I could do well if I got to the individual stage of the game and I knew I needed to bust my ass to make sure our tribe stayed strong. We only lost one Brain before the tribe swap and I credit myself, Matteo and Becky for those wins.” She smiled at Matteo who smiled back. “When we got to the tribe switch, I was alone with one Beauty and three Brawns. I thought for sure that I was going to go home,” she said, “but I outwitted them, thanks to Margarita. She’d told me to team up with Gabe and then sent me a legacy advantage that could only be used with 14 or 7 people left in the game. She left it to me, the Brain tribe member, to use it according to my best judgment so that we could both survive that vote. And I used it correctly, guessing that I was the target. That allowed Gabe and me to vote out Brandon, who was the de facto leader of the Brawns. Beyond that, I was a physical threat in the game. I won some rewards and I won some immunities. Yet I remained vulnerable on a couple of occasions and I still managed to pull through by virtue of some strategic thinking, like using my extra vote to get rid of Francis rather than let him take out Margarita. To get here, I proved that I know my fellow tribe members well enough to get to a tie-breaker with Margarita and then, after a really, really long day, I managed to beat Aishe in the firemaking challenge. Finally, I held on to my alliances the entire way through. Matteo and Becky have been my closest allies throughout the game. I’m loyal, I’m smart, I’m a physical threat and I’m still here,” she said. “And that’s why I should be the sole survivor.”

“Thanks, Alex. Margarita, you’re up.”

“I went from basically leading Beauty from day three to being betrayed by my alliance in the last few days but I’m still here because I’m stubborn.” She paused as people laughed. “I’m stubborn and proud of it, but I’m also resilient. I’m resilient because I made friends with pretty much everyone I shared a beach with. I know your birthdays, I know your pets’ names, I know what you do, how old you are, your partners’ names. I got to know you all pretty well and my only mistake was in trusting Francis not to flip back on me after he’d flipped on the Brains. But I won three immunity challenges in a row, pulling it out when it counted. I won immunity four times in total. Not bad for a Beauty, right?” she grinned, showing off her dimples. “I was behind most of the Beauty moves, with Gabe and then with Noah, who were my two closest allies, relying on Nicole and then, unfortunately, on Francis, to help me execute those moves.” She paused and looked over the jury. “But the major reason you should award me the million dollar prize is because I orchestrated it so that I’d be sitting next to Alex. As long as Alex was in the game, I wasn’t much of a threat, until Francis decided to try to vote me out. Alex was my shield.”

Alex tilted her head at that and looked over at Margarita.

“Think about it,” Margarita said, “once Alex won those two immunities in a row, no one was looking at me as a threat, even though I beat her in the first individual immunity. So when the time came and I was immune, I gave her my immunity idol. I wanted to be sitting here next to her because I saved her ass twice. She’s only sitting here because of me. Because I wanted her next to me. So if you’re thinking of voting for Alex, you have to vote for me, because she wouldn’t be here without me.” She smiled brilliantly. “That’s it,” she said.

Alex’s jaw dropped as she realized it was true. She had played them all magnificently, first using Alex as a shield and then making sure she came along with her.

“Thanks, Margarita,” Jeff said. “I’ll now allow the jury to address you.”

Most of the questions were directed at Margarita and Alex only had to address a couple of points, while Becky only had one question posed to her. Alex wasn’t sure if any of that was good for her or bad for her.

Jeff then asked the jury to vote, reminding them that, unlike all the other votes they’d participated in, they should vote for the person they  _ wanted _ to win the million dollars. Once done, Jeff nodded.

“I’ll go tally the votes.”

He returned shortly with the urn. “Thank you,” he said, “for a fantastic season. I’ll see you guys back in the States.” With that, he took the urn and headed off of the Tribal Council set. It was over.

The three of them got up and hugged each other, all together. There was a lot to be done. Production came in and got the jury, while the three finalists were brought to Dr. Joe for their exit physical exam, before they were brought to the Ponderosa camp for food and a good night of sleep before they’d all be flown back home.

It had been nice, Alex smiled, as she got into her room, after eating her fill. She happily brushed her teeth for a good ten minutes, just enjoying the ability to do so. Then, she stepped into the shower and let the hot water wash the dirt and grime from her body. She luxuriated in the warmth of the shower, poured far too much shampoo into her hair and scrubbed every inch of her body until it was red and angry. She wiped down the mirror in the bathroom afterwards, still shocked at how gaunt she looked. She’d lost eighteen pounds and she knew it was mostly muscle. It would mean a lot of time in the gym to get back to her pre-game condition, but it had been worth it.

She changed into a clean pair of boxers and a clean t-shirt, so pleased to no longer be wearing the same few items, and pulled back the covers of her bed. It was a bed. And it was all hers. She smiled widely, thinking about Margarita as she crawled in and deliberately took up the entire bed by stretching out. It felt decadent.

After a few minutes, she realized something else. As delicious as it all felt, it also felt lonely. She turned over and gazed up at the ceiling. She missed Margarita, she admitted to herself. It was definitely going to take getting used to sleeping alone. And indoors. She smiled at herself because it seemed so very odd to see a ceiling and not the stars. She turned over again, on to her side and closed her eyes.

Minutes later, she was still awake. No ocean waves, no gentle, cool breeze, and no softly-snoring Margarita next to her.

“This is stupid,” she muttered to herself. “In a comfortable bed, wearing fresh clothes, newly-showered, not ravenous, completely exhausted and, somehow, I can’t sleep.”

There was a light knock at the door. She frowned and turned on the small lamp on the bedside table and got up out of bed. She peered through the peephole and raised an eyebrow as she opened the door. “What are you doing here? It’s late.” she asked Margarita.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, striding into the room. She’d showered and changed, too, since she’d last seen her. No more Hello Sunshine shirt, she noticed, though that shirt had been awfully ratty by the end of the game.

Alex shut the door and turned back to face her. “You okay?”

Margarita smiled up at her. “I’m okay. I just… I just needed to see you. Talk to you.”

“Sure,” Alex said, going to sit on the edge of the bed.

Margarita knitted her fingers together and paced a bit. “Everything I said at Tribal tonight was true. I wanted you by my side so I could point to you and say hey, this was my plan, having Alex next to me was a goal and I achieved it.”

“And here I thought you hated me this whole time,” Alex said, dryly.

Margarita chuckled. “I didn’t like you at first, nerd,” she admitted. “But you grew on me. I… I don’t know if I would have had the internal fortitude to fight for myself that day Beauty lost immunity. You helped me with that. And that’s really when I became a dominant leader on Beauty. Voting Holly out was how I found my game. And it was, in part, because of you.” She paced again. “But part of it, too, was… I liked playing with you. And against you.” She stopped and turned and smiled at Alex, her dimples out. “I saved you for how I could manage to play it for the jury, sure.”

She sat down next to Alex. “But I also saved you because… I like you.”

Alex blinked at that. “You…”

“Like you.” She smiled. “C’mon, do you really think I slept in your hammock for two weeks just because I felt you owed me your body heat?”

Alex was still trying to wrap her head around it. “Uh… yeah?”

Margarita chuckled and reached out her hand to gently caress Alex’s left cheek. “For a such a nerd, you can be pretty dumb, you know.”

She was about to argue that when Margarita’s lips were on hers. A soft moan came from deep within her chest as she kissed her back, her arms encircling Margarita’s waist, pulling the other woman towards her.

They broke apart after a few moments and held each other. “I am so glad you feel the same way as I do,” Alex murmured, “because otherwise, watching the show together would be super embarrassing.”

Margarita laughed. “Oh God, I think I told Gabe in front of the camera how hot I thought you were on day two.”

Alex pulled back, grinning. “I definitely told Matteo I thought you were gorgeous. Oh, and my dad was like so what’s going on there?” She rolled her eyes.

Margarita brushed Alex’s hair out of her eyes and captured her lips again. “A showmance would have wrecked my game,” she said. “I told my tia that.”

“Would have wrecked mine, too,” Alex agreed. “But they are definitely going to edit us as nemeses-turned-lovers.”

Margarita smiled. “Well, let’s not make them liars, then,” she said, eyes twinkling, as she crawled towards the head of the bed.

She laughed. “Let’s not,” she agreed, and joined her.

 

***

 

_ Reunion Show _

They’d been dating since the show had ended, and it was common knowledge to the world that Alex and Margarita from  _ Survivor _ were a thing. Their social media accounts were resplendent with photos of them in and around National City, over in Midvale, at some vineyards near National City, basically anywhere they went, they shared photos on social media and fans would go wild.

And still, neither of them knew who had won the million dollars.

They’d watched every episode together, and, as they’d thought, what had originally been shown as a contentious relationship, starting from that argument about cheating, had been edited to show the softer side of both of the women. The hug at the loved one’s reward, the hug at camp when Margarita had cried and Alex had soothed her, sharing a hammock for two weeks, all of it was used by the editors to build a beautiful love story.

By the time the finale was aired, they’d been together for over a full calendar year. They were in Los Angeles, at the studio, for the live vote reveal, their families in the audience. Alex was wearing a dark blazer with its sleeves rolled up over a blue t-shirt that read, in white cursive, “I’m her Nerd” and Margarita was wearing an orange t-shirt saying “I’m her Sunshine” in black cursive writing, under her leather jacket. The two of them were recognized often and it was always by people who shouted out “Hey Sunshine!” or “Hi Nerd!”. They’d embraced it, particularly for this evening.

The lights went up on stage as the final moments of the final episode finished and people started cheering, while Alex sat on a Tribal Council set, between Margarita and Becky, holding hands with both of them. All three of them smiled as Jeff made his way to his podium on the stage with the urn of votes.

“Are we ready to read some votes?” Jeff asked, grinning.

“Uh, Jeff?” Alex said. “Could I say something first?”

“Sure,” he said.

“What are you doing?” muttered Margarita.

Alex cleared her throat and turned, taking both of Margarita’s hands in her own, and sang softly.

“You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine,

You make me happy, our life’s a thrill.

You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you…

Oh, Sunshine, please say that you will.”

Margarita was smiling, but looked confused. “Will what?”

Alex beamed and pulled out a small, black, velvet box, while the audience went absolutely ape.

“Sunshine, will you marry me?” she asked, dropping to one knee, opening it.

Becky was beaming and clapping for them, along with the rest of the jury and the audience.

Margarita looked up at Alex, eyes watering. “Yes,” she said, simply, smiling, her dimples showing.

Alex kissed her tenderly and slipped the ring on her finger, then they hugged tightly. She was flying, it felt like. Who cared about the million dollars when she had this woman agreeing to be with her for the rest of their days?

Jeff wiped at his eyes. “Okay, that’s the second time that’s happened on one of these reunion shows and the second time I’ve been caught completely by surprise,” he grinned. “Can, uh, can we go back to the whole million dollar prize thing now?”

That drew a big laugh and Alex pulled back. She reached over to hold Becky’s hand as well as Jeff prepared to read the votes.

“Okay,” he said, “remember, tonight, you  _ want  _ to see your name on a parchment.” He reached in and pulled out the first vote.

“Margarita,” he said.

There was a cheer from the crowd and Alex kissed her cheek.

“Second vote, Alex. We’re tied, one vote Margarita, one vote Alex.”

There was another cheer.

“Third vote, Margarita.” He reached in for the next. “Alex. We’re tied again. Two votes Margarita, two votes Alex.”

Alex squeezed Margarita’s hand.

“Next vote, Margarita,” he said, showing it to the crowd. “And the next vote,” he said, pulling it out and revealing it, “Alex. We’re tied again. Three votes Margarita. Three votes Alex. One vote left.”

Alex braced herself. She knew that Becky hadn’t gotten a vote because they wouldn’t have left Fiji after the vote. Jeff would have counted it up and he would have made Becky a juror and asked her to cast the deciding vote. So it was either her or it was Margarita. She squeezed both women’s hands tightly.

“The winner of Survivor Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty 3,” he said, flipping the parchment over, “Margarita.”

The crowd went wild and Alex leapt up with her, hugging her tightly and kissing her soundly, before Margarita moved to hug Becky and congratulate her on a game well played. Then Margarita went down into the audience to celebrate with her tia Gabriella.

“There you have it, folks, the winner is Margarita. We’ll be back after the break to talk to Margarita and Alex about their relationship and how their feelings for one another might have ruined the game for them both. We’ll also talk about how I was, once again, blindsided by a proposal on this very stage! Stay tuned,” Jeff encouraged the viewers.

Alex stood there, beaming, watching her fiancée celebrate with her aunt, clapping loudly.

“Sorry you didn’t win, Alex,” Becky said to her.

Alex smiled back. “I may not have won the game, but I won big. Huge,” she grinned, as she caught Margarita’s eye. “She’s going to be my  _ wife _ ,” she said. “Nothing could beat that. Not even a million dollars.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Survivor YouTube links to give you some context! Open in a new tab to get back here easily. :)
> 
> [Survivor Ladder Puzzle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI84UxXSgcY)
> 
> [Suvivor Maze Immunity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK3iYbJPHpc) 
> 
> [Survivor Trivia Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY7TFZS2bHc)
> 
> [Survivor Final Four Firemaking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDafZjhHME)
> 
> [Survivor Final Tribal Council](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgmfBCx-i-Q)
> 
> [Boston Rob Proposes to Amber at the Reunion Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtjEiqlprGc)

**Author's Note:**

> **Each part of the series is a one-shot, except for this one. There will be no continuations after chapter four is posted, so please don’t ask. :) Once I’m done with all the Earths, I may do a smaller collection based on some of my favourites from this series but that’s a long way off.**


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